16 years

Liu Ruosong had lost news of Fu Yan since half an hour ago.

After finishing the finishing work of the research institute, he led his team members to evacuate to join Feng Lei. Before he could share the joy of discovery, he heard Feng Lei say that the landscape park had lost contact.

...or maybe even lost contact.

The last news from over there was that they found traces of the petri dish and made initial contact, and there was no news about the extent of the "contact" after that.

Liu Ruosong followed Feng Lei into the command vehicle, and went to the landscape park to pick them up. On the way, they encountered a group of zombies scurrying over. When the guards got out of the vehicle to deal with them, Feng Lei suddenly looked at the sky and sighed in the vehicle.

"It's going to rain." Feng Lei said.

It's late at night, the sky is pitch black, Liu Ruosong didn't see anything, but somehow he smelled something ominous and decayed from his words.

The group of zombies were not many, they looked like six or seven, and they were dealt with after only half a shift was dispatched. The convoy started moving again, Liu Ruosong's palms were cold, and a little cold sweat faintly broke out.

I don't know if it was a psychological effect, but after Feng Lei finished speaking, he seemed to feel some kind of sticky and cold water vapor from the air, which flowed into his lungs along his breath, making his whole chest cold. one slice.

The patrol squad outside the landscape park has retreated, which means that they have found and controlled the petri dish, at least no longer need to contain it.

Liu Ruosong followed Feng Lei to the meeting place in the back mountain, one foot deep and one foot shallow. The more he walked, the more serious the water vapor in the air was, and the low pressure in the rainy weather fell heavily, making him a little out of breath.

A bright flashlight was turned on on the back mountain of the landscape park, reflecting half of the back mountain as bright as day. Irene was surrounded by patrol squads and was writhing on the ground with difficulty.

I don't know who was kind enough to put a dress on her.

Liu Ruosong followed behind Feng Lei, and he patrolled silently, sizing up the crowd two or three times, but he didn't ask until he got close, "Where are Team Fu and the others—"

The squad leader of the patrol squad trembled imperceptibly, his eyes wandered for a moment, and he moved from Irene to the grass.

Liu Ruosong's heart pounded, as if a boulder rolled down, hitting him immediately and suffocating him.

He didn't know what happened in the short hour or so that he and Fu Yan were separated, and he didn't know what happened when he captured the petri dish—but it could be seen that this must not be good news.

"What about people?" he asked again.

The squad leader pointed to the cave next to him, but said nothing.

Feng Lei frowned, just as he wanted him to speak clearly, Liu Ruosong had already turned his head and rushed in.

The soil at the back of the mountain was soft, so he staggered a step too fast, but still kept his speed, barely maintaining his balance and rushed into the cave.

Feng Lei opened his mouth hesitantly, but before he could say a word, he simply swallowed it back.

In the cave, Fu Yan was sitting a little deeper in the cave, and Shao Qiu was sitting obliquely across from him, close to the entrance of the cave, with a distance of more than two meters. The two were silent and smoking a cigarette facing each other.

When Liu Ruosong rushed in, Fu Yan's cigarette just hit the tail, and he extinguished the cigarette butt on the soil and rocks around him. When he turned his head, he saw that most of the artificial light outside was blocked.

The high-power bright light drew a silhouette at the entrance of the cave, and Fu Yan was stunned for a second before he recognized that it was Liu Ruosong.

Shao Qiu was closer to the entrance of the cave, and he "bounced" from the ground almost instantly. His expression was painful and restrained, and he seemed to have thousands of words to say, but his Adam's apple rolled up and down for a moment, and finally he only said one sentence "I'm sorry" comes.

Liu Ruosong didn't hear what he said.

His heart was pounding, and all his senses were in an extremely magnified state. He was prepared for the worst when he rushed in, but when he saw Fu Yan in good shape when he entered the door, those high-hanging emotions were heavy again. Falling back to the original place, there was a shock caused by the big ups and downs, and his whole body fell into a short period of downtime, and he didn't react for a while.

The person is not dead, Liu Ruosong thought, it looks like he is in good condition, and he was not seriously injured.

The other things are not important, so he hummed lightly instinctively, saying "it's okay" kindly.

However, Shao Qiu looked at him with more complicated eyes.

Immediately afterwards, Fu Yan's eyes also changed, he looked at Liu Ruosong peacefully and silently, there was a sense of extreme comfort in his eyes.

The way Fu Yan looked at him was easy to understand, most of the time it was conniving, gentle, with an imperceptible smile.After starting the "reboot", it will be mixed with a little guilt, and the concessions derived from guilt.

But now those are gone.

Very abnormal... Liu Ruosong thought.

"Shao Qiu." Fu Yan said: "It's okay, he doesn't blame you, you can go out."

Liu Ruosong's sluggish senses reacted a bit before he realized where the abnormality was.

——Fu Yan never got up.

No matter where he is, as long as Fu Yan sees him, he will more or less "greet" him.Even when he came back from a mission and lay on the hospital bed back then, when he saw him, he would reach out to meet his gaze, instead of just sitting there waiting for him to walk by himself like now.

Shao Qiu passed Liu Ruosong, and Liu Ruosong's eyes followed Fu Yan to look around, and finally fell on his left hand - and then he finally discovered the reason.

Because Fu Yan handcuffed himself to the steel frame.

"...Brother." Liu Ruosong said dryly, "You were bitten by that petri dish?"

Fu Yan hummed.

Liu Ruosong only felt that something in his mind snapped off.

His emotions went back and forth between sorrow and joy, the intervals were extremely short, just like a joke.So much so that he didn't feel a bolt from the blue this time, but a sudden anger of being fooled in his heart.

Perhaps the extreme of fear is anger, Liu Ruosong only felt a fire from the inside out, almost cooking him up in the blink of an eye.

He didn't know what he was angry at—maybe it was fate, maybe it was overwhelming failure, or maybe it was just anger at his own powerlessness.

He strode up to Fu Yan's side, picked up his left hand, which had never moved, and rolled up his sleeve.

With the light of the flashlight, Liu Ruosong could clearly see the wound on Fu Yan's forearm.Irene's lethality was extremely strong, the wound was deep enough to see the bone, and there was an ominous bluish white beside the valgus flesh, but the color of the blood was still fresh, and flowed out with Liu Ruosong's movements.

Fu Yan was keenly aware of Liu Ruosong's anger, so he didn't dare to speak.

Liu Ruosong took a deep breath, without saying a word to Fu Yan, put down his forearm, turned his head and left the cave.

"Where's the medical kit?" Liu Ruosong spread out his hands and said, "Is there any unpacked one?"

There were more than half of the people outside, and Irene was no longer there. It seemed that Feng Lei was transferred to a safer car first.

Feng Lei and Shao Qiu didn't leave, they were still standing outside, their expressions on each other were ugly, looking at Liu Ruosong with uncomfortable sympathy.

"Consultant Liu, I know this is difficult to accept." Feng Lei has been out many times, and has seen many such scenes of accidental injury and mutation of his comrades-in-arms, and he is even a little numb: "But it is a fact that you will mutate after infection, you—— "

"Has he changed now?" Liu Ruosong asked coldly.

Feng Lei was stunned for a moment, Liu Ruosong also noticed that this evil fire seemed to have burned someone else, he barely suppressed his emotions, and pinched his forehead in frustration.

"Sorry." Liu Ruosong made a gesture and said at a loss: "I—"

"It's okay, I understand." Feng Lei interrupted him, without saying anything, he took out the medical bag and handed it to Liu Ruosong: "People's hearts are made of meat."

Liu Ruosong pursed his lips, thanked him in a low voice, and turned his head back.

Fu Yan still maintained the posture just now, not even daring to put down his sleeves.Liu Ruosong didn't mind the high-risk label of "may mutate at any time" on him at all, sat down in front of him face to face, and tore open the medical bag with a thud.

Fu Yan hesitated to speak, and wanted to tell him that it was useless, the wounds of mutants would not heal, and medical supplies should be used less, and it is best not to waste them.

...but he really didn't dare to say it.

Because Liu Ruosong was angry.

In Colonel Fu's life principles, "Don't make your lover angry" is also an important one. If you really violate the prohibition, then this rule will be automatically expanded to "Don't add fuel to the flames."

Liu Ruosong moved very quickly. He strictly followed the trauma treatment process of disinfection, application of medicine and bandaging, and wrapped the snow-white bandage around Fu Yan's hand to block the hideous wound that was as long as a palm.

In the middle of the journey, he seemed to feel that leaning was too strenuous, so he half-knelt up and bit the medical tape with his teeth.

His face was expressionless, but his hands were shaking, and there was a little red mark at the corner of his eye. He didn't know if it was caused by anger, or he couldn't help crying.

Fu Yan sighed in his heart, and wanted to wipe his tears away, but unfortunately one handcuffed to the wall and the other handcuffed to Liu Ruosong, it was really powerless.

"Wakamatsu—"

"Don't say I'm sorry." Liu Ruosong said, "If you say so, I'll beat you up."

Liu Ruosong had already bound up his wound with his hands and feet as he spoke, and even wiped off the remaining blood near his wound with the remaining gauze.

Then Fu Yan saw his chest heaving violently for a moment, Liu Ruosong silently threw the ball of gauze on the ground, and rushed over to hug Fu Yan tightly.

He was very strong, and he had the illusion of wanting to embed Fu Yan into his body.

Fu Yan's first reaction was to push him away.

He could mutate at any time, and there was blood all over his body, it was really unsafe for Liu Ruosong to hug him like this.

But as soon as his hand touched Liu Ruosong's shoulder, he felt that Liu Ruosong had relaxed a little, turned his head and leaned towards him, as if he wanted to kiss him.

There is a risk of infection in exchanging bodily fluids, Fu Yan subconsciously staggered back a little, avoiding Liu Ruosong's kiss for the first time in his life, the soft touch fell on the corner of his lips, Liu Ruosong seemed to know what he was thinking, so he hummed lightly With a sound, he retreated a little to the side and kissed his face.

"You are so tense." Liu Ruosong said, "Are you afraid?"

Fu Yan froze for a moment, and wanted to say no, but before he could say anything, he felt his heart skip a beat, and then he realized... Liu Ruosong was right.

He is not afraid of death, but he doesn't know how to face Liu Ruosong.

From being bitten to now, even if Liu Ruosong came in front of him, he still hasn't faced up to this matter.

This is a rare escape in his life. Fu Yan found that he hardly had the courage to face this problem.

Of course he can search for some comforting words, no matter how bad it is, there will be "next time" to use.

But again and again, Fu Yan couldn't say anything.

"Don't be afraid." Liu Ruosong's voice was not stable enough. He maintained a hugging posture, and carelessly touched Fu Yan's back, not knowing whether he was comforting the other party or comforting himself: "It's okay, don't be afraid."

Fu Yan only felt that he took a breath intermittently, as if he had made a decision in an instant.

Liu Ruosong patted him on the back, then took Fu Yan's gun from his waist.

Immediately afterwards, he retreated across from Fu Yan, sat down at the "safe distance" that Fu Yan recognized, pulled out the magazine and took a look, and then replaced the rubber bullets inside with live bullets one by one.

"It's okay, don't be afraid." Liu Ruosong repeated again, he took a deep breath, his voice was clearly trembling, but sounded firmer than ever: "I'll just wait here, if you really change, I will Just shoot you dead... and then we'll start over."