RALP Chapter 45

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Du You can feel the man’s hand trembling.

You Haoyu is looking fiercely at him, his ears beet-red now, “I, actually…”

Suddenly, a knock on the door; it’s the agent.

The agent is quite shocked to see his charge holding his boss’ hand.

Though, smart people would know to keep quiet, “Haoyu, director Wang has finished talking to the lead, head over quickly.”

You Haoyu fizzles out thanks to the intervention.

He lets Du You’s hands go. A pause, then he asks, “when will you be leaving?”

Du You says after a bit of thought, “I have meetings in the afternoon.”

So right now.

Though slightly disappointed, You Haoyu quietly moves his gaze away, his hand rubbing his nape, “anyway… I am happy that you came to visit today.”

The amber eyes steal a peek at Du You before looking downwards, “I’ll be heading off.”

Du You sees him off, then nods towards the agent still standing at the door in acknowledgement.

Then, the agent wakes himself up from his self-inflicted stupor.

What did he just see?

Since he was first assigned to him, he’s realised how impolite and uncompromising his charge is. He has no idea what ‘courtesy’ meant.

Yet, such a person just showed him what could only be described as ‘coyness’?

Du You asks, seeing the man look fixedly at him, “what.”

The agent realises how rude he’s being and bows to apologise, then hurriedly leaves the scene.

When Du You and assistant Xiao left, the shooting has already resumed.

The two of them are moving along in the car; the heating makes it much warmer than back in the staff room.

Du You nods off at the backseat.

Then, he starts to hear something.

“Series no. 212.”

“There’s finally one survivor.”

“Not exactly a success though,” the male voice sounds pained. The people’s forms are becoming more clear now.

The man is wearing a big white coat, conversing with others in the room who are also dressed similarly.

They do not notice that the door isn’t shut properly, and a boy who looks about to be the age when he’s just learned to walk is peeking inside.

The white coat man is covering his face with his hand, “organs failing one by one every year. Even if we’ve given them abilities none of them survive past 18; is there even any meaning in doing this anymore?”

“Start another batch,” someone is knocking onto the table with a curled finger, “we must work out the reason behind the bodily deterioration; we must succeed soon.”

“We don’t have much time left.”

…

The boy has grown taller now, but nothing has changed; he’s still peeking inside from the door.

It’s a different location with complicated machinery installed inside. The adults are still wearing their uniform clothes, busily talking, recording and operating the machines.

Someone grabs him.

“What are you doing again? This is not where you should go.”

A white coat man has caught him.

He does not struggle as he is carried out through the corridor and then back to the small ten sq. meter room he is always made to stay in.

It’s a boring place. He has nobody to talk to.

Even if he tries talking to the adults, they would always look like they would rather be somewhere else.

A while after the man has left, he jumps off the bed and runs out again.

This time, he has made it to another place he has never been to before.

This place is wider than any other room he has ever seen. The ceiling is so tall it makes him think it must be the ‘sky’ he has read about. There’s a wide walkway in the middle and a lot of glass cylinders lined up on either side of it.

The glass cylinders are big, even bigger than the adults. Through the glass he can see that there is a small baby floating in a light blue liquid in each of them. The babies are all curled up with their arms hugging their thighs wobbling up and down inside. There is a long thing (TL: Umbilical cord) coming out from the bottom of the cylinder into the baby’s belly button.

The boy walks inside with big, round, widened eyes.

The babies all look similar – as ugly as monkeys.

At the end of the corridor, though, is a cylinder unlike any other——There is a single giant glass cylinder on the far side of the room.

The boy walks closer to observe the baby floating inside. As if defying gravity, this baby is floating upside-down.

Is this how babies are born?

The boy does not really understand. He is getting bored now.

None of them would react or interact with him anyway.

When he is thinking about leaving and where to head next, though, the baby in front of him suddenly opens his eyes.

He has abnormally large pupils and disproportionately little amount of white in his eyes. It makes the boy unsettled just looking at it.

In the chestnut-coloured irises is a blinking symbol in the shape of an ‘X.’

A ‘crack’ and the reinforced glass cylinder suddenly blasts open. The fragments fly all over and the boy takes a few steps back while protecting his face.

Though his arms inevitably get scratched with several lines of blood by the sharp pieces of glass.

The ice-blue liquid has also poured over him making him drenched. His black hair, his short-sleeve shirt and his pants are all wet and dripping.

When he lowers his hand he can see the baby whose eyes are shut right there in the middle of the bottom of the cylinder. The long thing has snapped. It was as if it was just his imagination that the baby opened his eyes just now.

The boy walks over to take the baby in his hands, and runs outside.

Not long after he has left the mysterious room, he hears someone calling him from behind.

“Why are you running about again, stay in the room!” The voice sounds angry.

He stops and turns around, handing the baby over, “he is dying.”

The ‘teacher’ pauses and, with trembling lips as he sees the boy looking all messed up while holding an experiment sample in his hands, “you, where…”

Before he can continue, the baby has opened his eyes again, looking at him expressionlessly.

It’s a baby. An unarmed baby. Yet just looking into his eyes which are more black than white makes the teacher afraid.

Three years pass.

“The third one already?”

A bespectacled man slams onto the table, “that kid is beyond us. We must immediately apply to scrap him!”

“Scrap? The management is already furious how much money and time they sunk into us with no results. This is the first successful sample and you’re telling us to throw it away?! It’s just two years, we can still condition him.”

The bespectacled man retorts, “successful? That thing’s nuts! He’s killed three teachers already, who’s going to be next teacher, you?”

The room falls silent.

If they choose to ‘scrap,’ then this failure of a project will be immediately terminated. They will all be chased out of the facility, losing this safe haven.

Yet, if they let X be as he is, the casualties will surely not just end at those three teachers.

Though on the surface it is way worse to just ‘scrap’ him, but the problem right now is that no one is willing to sacrifice themselves for others’ benefits.

The meeting comes to a standstill.

Then, a girl suggests, meekly, “what if we just have sample no. 165 care for him?”

Everyone’s gazes land on her.

Originally, after the successful creation of X, they should have immediately got rid of sample no. 165 to conserve resources.

But X’s horrifying series of acts immediately following that has made them far too preoccupied to deal with a mere sample.

They only remember that there’s a sample like that when the girl reminded them.

Though he’s a failure himself, he did have an above average physique which should make him hardier than normal humans. And, he’s much more obedient, even if only relatively.

Maybe they can actually restrain X through number 165.

Even if X does kill him, it’s not much of a loss for them at this point.

But still, the shitstorm that would surely have followed that… They sincerely hope that these two kids who are both samples will be sympathetic to one another.

The boy is already eight years old now, old enough to realise that this is a research facility.

And also understand that the adults, the ‘teachers’ don’t actually have any parental affection for him.

The incident two years ago have made them serious in restricting his movement. Whenever he tried to sneak out, a device on his ankle would electrically shock him.

Following that, he only ever hangs out in the ‘courtyard.’

This place is always full of greenery. There’s grass and flowers blooming everywhere——Even though it’s all just plastic.

That does not stop him from lying on the prickly, uncomfortable fields to picture himself sleeping in the outdoors, though.

That is when he hears footsteps behind him.

Sitting up, looking back, a teacher is leading a younger kid his way.

By pulling on a leash attached to the wrists of the kid.

He is shorter than him with chestnut-coloured curly hair. His hands are bound and his eye is blindfolded as well.

So the boy gets up and looks towards the teacher.

“He will be your didi from now on,” the teacher hands the leash over, “as gege, you need to make him listen to you.”

Then, as if in fear of continuing to be in the same space as the didi, the teacher quickly leaves the courtyard.

The boy watches as he left before looking at his new ‘younger brother.’

He kneels to remove the piece of cloth from his eyes. He faintly recalls something when he sees the chestnut-coloured eyes.

“Were you born inside the can?”

“…” The pair of eyes are staring fixedly at him.

The boy rubs his hair, “hello. From now on I will be your gege.”

“My name is Du You.”

…

His sense of danger suddenly tingling, Du You’s eyes shoot open.

Of course, the dream felt realistic, but the sense of danger is firing off not from something in it, but reality.

The van that was cruising along the highway seems to have suddenly slipped and crashes towards the railing.

Assistant Xiao realises that the steering wheel is suddenly impossible to control.

Du You reaches over and unbuckles her.

Then, a crash——The car smashes right into the railing. The lights broke, and the entire front of the car has caved into it.

The window of the van has cracked into a gigantic spider web.

Assistant Xiao’s eyes were closed in the last second reflexively.

Though she seems to have felt herself lifted by the collar, and then a suffocating jolt of weightlessness as the wind feels like it was slapping her across the face, before a sudden stop.

Nothing seems to have happened to her.

Yet, that thunderous crash was definitely real.

Was she so lucky she got off with light or even no injuries?

She first opens one eye, and then the next, as she stands stunned at the scene.

The crash is catastrophic. But, she isn’t in the car. She is outside the railing of the highway. She is standing on the dirt.

The unpaved dirt beyond the highway, covered in grass and not asphalt.

While hyperventilating, she’s also in disbelief. Wasn’t she still on the driver’s seat just now? How is she suddenly out?

“Are you alright?”

That is when CEO Du’s voice comes up from behind her.

Assistant Xiao finally realises she is gripping tightly onto her boss’ arm still, and releases it while going, “I, I’m fine!”

She’s flabbergasted.

Did CEO Du lift her out? But, that’s impossible isn’t it?

Even if he is quite peculiar in certain aspects, but, the speed of the van just now; was that even humanly possible?

She steals a peek at CEO Du.

The man is unfazed, his grey eyes looking cold as always. He’s not looking at her, but at the pile of scrap metal that was a van.

She goes dazed for a second before shaking the thought away.

Some things in life are not meant to be questioned.

Then, she sees the man turn around to ask, “how did the crash happen?”

Assistant Xiao has calmed down slightly now, and starts recalling what happened.

She was driving normally, and in fact, so as not to disturb CEO Du, she wasn’t even playing music, and was focusing solely on driving.

That was when suddenly there was a white shadow in front of the car. She was so shocked that something was in the highway she could barely react, but instinctively she was still trying to turn the steering wheel.

That was when she discovered that the steering wheel could not control the car anymore. It was as if the car was pushed sideways right into the railing.

“A white shadow?”

“Yes. It was right there,” assistant Xiao says, pointing her finger towards the location, where nothing but a terrifying tire skid mark was left.

Her finger freezes in mid-air, before heading up to push her glasses back up.

A hallucination?

But she didn’t drink or take medication, and she was well-rested. How would that even be possible?

Du You does not continue questioning her seeing her starting to panic.

A while later, assistant Xiao finally gets her wits about her, and starts dealing with the aftermath, starting with calling the police.

Then she speaks to Du You, “Mr. Du, I believe the meeting will have to be delayed. I will also have them send another car to pick you up.”

Du You shakes his head, “no need.”

“But——”

Though it was a car accident, he himself was not injured. Instead, he tells assistant Xiao, “you should get off work early today, and go to the hospital.”

“I’m alright!” She quickly asserts.

But then she sees her boss’ gaze shift downwards towards her feet.

She finally notices that her pants were torn and there is a fresh wound on her lower leg.

She was so shocked she didn’t notice. And now that she saw it she actually starts feeling the pain from it.

Du You furrows his brows.

Human bodies are fragile. Though he managed to bring her out in time, scratches were unavoidable.

Though it does hurt, but compared to the car accident, assistant Xiao thinks she needs to get her priorities straight, “Mr. Du, I…”

“Ladies would not want scars on their bodies,” says Du You, “go to the hospital now.”

Lady…

Assistant Xiao, the post-30-year-old, has not been called a lady since by the opposite sex. Her heart can’t help but skip a beat.

Right right right everything CEO Du says is right! She’ll go to the hospital right now!

Du You was late to the meeting due to the traffic accident, and it was almost eight when it was over.

The sky is dark already, and, because overtime is discouraged throughout the company, most of the floors of the HQ are already dark.

Du You packs his stuff up in the office and switches off the lights as he leaves, only to bump into the person outside. His right hand was raised, seemingly ready to knock.

“Have you not left yet?” Says Du You.

Qin Ge smiles, “I was waiting for you.”

Since they do both live in the same neighbourhood, Du You wouldn’t mind giving him a ride. He was about to call the driver when Qin Ge says, “he’s left already. I’ll be driving you back.”

Du You turns to look at him hearing that.

While Qin Ge is always smiling, it seems like his smile was subtly different today.

“And from now on, I will be the one driving gege to and from work.”

“…”

“Why?”

Qin Ge wouldn’t listen though. His chestnut eyes are looking gently at Du You, “I should have done that in the first place. Or, gege wouldn’t have been in a traffic accident.”

He wanted to rush towards the scene immediately hearing the news, but him being an ‘intern’ meant that ‘seniors’ kept him behind.

He hates the seniors; he hates the people who made his gege fall victim to a traffic accident.

He wants to immediately bring Du You back from this world to where they belong, but since Du You didn’t want to, he had to compromise.

There are too many restrictive rules in this world. While he is willing to endure them for Du You, he does not know how long he can actually endure before snapping.

All those things that are dividing gege’s attention; all those people approaching gege left and right; all those things that want to hurt gege.

Perhaps, one day, he will take out those trash, his own way.

Qin Ge extends his hand, “let’s go, gege.”

Du You locks eyes with him after taking a peek at the black leather gloves, “what do you want to do?”

Qin Ge’s expression does not change.

“I said, you must not lay your hands on the people here.”

“…”

Qin Ge always knew that his gege who has forgotten everything would have no affection for him.

But he doesn’t care.

So he does not retract his hand, still smiling as he looks at Du You. Though, his fingertips are cold, as if immersed in icy waters.

That was when suddenly, he hears, “were you born inside the can?”

Qin Ge’s whole expression freezes as his eyes widen.

“If you are my younger brother, then you should listen to your gege.”

The office tower is cold at night. The shadow of the two are cast onto the white wall behind them.

Qin Ge is staring fixedly at Du You, even forgetting about blinking.

“Your answer.”

Qin Ge, as if finally remembering how to breath, and with his fingers starting to tremble, “yes, I will listen to gege.”

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TL’s notes: Oooof these chapters are long, but still, great plot development. This ‘imprinting’ thing sounds kind of iffy to me though.