EDEH Chapter 13

[007 Diary Entry 8]

 

[Subject 004, Wei Lan, is a very interesting observation target. She is a calm, self-controlled woman with great ambition. Compared to Subject 002 Huo Yanji, who is an offspring, certain qualities about her are more like the Huo Feng of old.]

 

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Wind tousled his hair. Sang Jue froze, trying to find where the wind was coming from.

 

He saw a faint light ahead—it was a downward slope.

 

Like a narrow abyss with no visible bottom.

 

“Doctor…”

 

“007?”

 

His voice echoed back to his ears. The doctor wasn’t there, and 007 didn’t respond either. They had all disappeared.

 

The moss beneath his feet was slippery—Sang Jue wasn’t wearing shoes, walking barefoot, and could only carefully move toward the light.

 

He walked for a long time without seeing the source of the light.

 

Gradually, the moss under his feet disappeared, replaced by painful stones. The wet, soft moss on his soles caused him to slip suddenly, sliding forward like a sled, with his bottom as the seat.

 

Sang Jue couldn’t brake at all, bumping and bouncing, up and down, his bottom burning with pain, his throat seeming blocked with phlegm so he couldn’t make a sound.

 

He was so scared he squeezed his eyes shut until he grabbed onto two straight things and finally stopped.

 

He opened his eyes and found himself wedged between two legs… this scene was strangely familiar.

 

The owner of the legs looked down at him: “You shattered my balls.”

 

“…” Sang Jue woke up. Opening his eyes, the owner of the balls sat diagonally across from him.

 

“Having a nightmare?” Huo Yanji was wiping his commonly used dagger.

 

“Ah…” Sang Jue hadn’t yet recovered, staring blankly. “I dreamed that… yours got broken…”

 

“Where?” Huo Yanji paused.

 

Sang Jue’s muddled mind cleared up a bit.

 

Two hours ago, he had set out with Huo Yanji and the rescue team from the main city outpost, heading to District Seven.

 

They were still more than ten kilometers from the nearest District Seven outpost. Once they arrived, they could take the train into the city.

 

“Just there…” Sang Jue said vaguely under Huo Yanji’s cold gaze.

 

There weren’t just Sang Jue and Huo Yanji in this vehicle—there were other accompanying officers as well.

 

They were all shrewd people who instantly understood what kind of dream Sang Jue had been having.

 

The man sitting next to Huo Yanji was shaking with laughter. Only after being glanced at did he pretend to cough and force himself to hold it in.

 

The vehicle had both deviants and ordinary people, easily distinguishable by the slight differences in their military uniform styles.

 

Huo Yanji sat in the first seat on the left side of the compartment. The first seat on the right was occupied by a cold-faced female deviant named Wei Lan, a colonel. Sang Jue sat next to her.

 

The laughing man sat directly across from Sang Jue. His rank wasn’t low either—he was a supervisor who had introduced himself when they departed: Colin.

 

He winked at Sang Jue: “Let’s switch seats.”

 

Sang Jue: “…”

 

Honestly, having just had that ball-crushing dream, Sang Jue didn’t really want to sit next to Huo Yanji.

 

But Huo Yanji glanced at him and said flatly: “Come here.”

 

Sang Jue was still confused—he had never dreamed before.

 

Last night at Old Karl’s house, he had been busy dealing with honey-guides and hadn’t slept well. That’s why he had slept for two hours in the vehicle.

 

He stood up dazedly. The road was bumpy and the vehicle was jolting severely. With his legs numb from sleep, Sang Jue couldn’t stand steady and fell directly to his knees, his head heading straight for the balls he had just crushed in his dream…

 

Fortunately, a hand caught his forehead.

 

Colin, who had moved to Sang Jue’s seat, suppressed his laughter: “You’re really persistent about crushing our General’s balls, aren’t you? Keep it up—the General doesn’t indulge in carnal pleasures anyway, so he has no use for that thing.”

 

“Pfft…” This time he really couldn’t control it. Everyone in the entire compartment started laughing.

 

Huo Yanji lifted Sang Jue’s chin. The little guy’s eyes were red at the corners.

 

His tone was flat: “I’m the one being laughed at, yet you’re the one looking aggrieved.”

 

“I’m not.” Sang Jue rubbed his eyes. “They’re itchy.”

 

Sang Jue hadn’t yet learned the emotion of feeling aggrieved.

 

His eyes were just a bit itchy from sleeping too long.

 

“Let me see.” Huo Yanji’s voice was cool, with a crisp quality. “Very itchy?”

 

“Mm…”

 

Sang Jue wanted to rub them but was stopped.

 

“Don’t rub. There are bacteria.”

 

“Oh.”

 

“How long do you plan to keep kneeling?”

 

“…Oh.”

 

Colin snorted again with laughter. After being swept by the superior’s gaze, he quickly turned his head away, enduring the pain of holding it in.

 

Sang Jue got up and sat properly, dutifully fastening his seatbelt and apologizing quietly: “I didn’t mean to make everyone laugh at you. I can’t control my dreams either.”

 

Huo Yanji made an “mm” sound.

 

After the small episode passed, the others began discussing the tactical deployment for this mission.

 

When talk turned to the battle situation in District Seven, everyone’s smiles faded and the mood became heavy.

 

They were on the road to provide support, but it might also be the road to their deaths.

 

District Seven had lost contact an hour ago. No one knew the current casualties there, how many deviant creatures were present, or whether there were ground contaminants in addition to the birds.

 

How many of them would be lost in this support mission?

 

Everything was unknown.

 

Colonel Wei Lan said: “The Seventh Safe Zone cannot fall.”

 

“That’s right. District Seven’s research institute has so much important research data, plus such large farming forests. If it really falls, the other safe zones will probably face famine.”

 

The resources humans lacked most now were fresh water and food. The Meteor Season had destroyed too much.

 

The vehicle suddenly braked hard. Everyone lurched forward in the direction the vehicle had been traveling. Sang Jue crashed into Huo Yanji’s shoulder, covering his reddened forehead.

 

Wei Lan calmly braced herself against the handrail. Colin nearly fell onto her legs but was yanked back by his seatbelt at the critical moment.

 

Huo Yanji pressed the communicator: “What’s happening?”

 

The driver quickly replied: “Report! The observer sent word that the road half a kilometer ahead is covered with Size 3 animal traps. Impassable!”

 

Many deviant species carried resource materials that humans needed, but some creatures were too large to constantly stake out, so super-sized animal traps had been developed.

 

Size 1 was the smallest, Size 3 the largest.

 

Wei Lan frowned: “It can’t be District Seven’s own people who set them. The Supreme Council explicitly prohibits placing animal traps on any vehicular roads.”

 

Colin said angrily: “Damn it, it’s definitely those trash from the ruins! Those garbage people do nothing but try to drag humanity down with them!”

 

Huo Yanji’s expression didn’t change as he pressed the radio: “Stop for fifteen minutes of maintenance. Teams Seven and Eight continue forward. After removing the animal traps, don’t stop—proceed to the nearest outpost to assess the situation. Everyone else rest in place and enter combat readiness!”

 

“Yes!”

 

On the wide forest road, the sunlight was gradually setting. The armored vehicles parked neatly on the right side. Moments later, four armored vehicles split off and continued toward the depths of dusk.

 

Sang Jue followed Huo Yanji and jumped out of the vehicle. Finally having a chance to deal with the liquid about to overflow from his body, he randomly picked an unpopulated direction, climbed over moss-covered rocks, and walked behind a tree.

 

There were many contaminants around. He could hear their sounds.

 

Moving ones, non-moving ones—countless numbers.

 

Hmm… there seemed to be other sounds too.

 

“Just a hug.” It was Colin’s voice.

 

Sang Jue poked his head out. Not far away, Wei Lan was leaning against a tree with Colin standing very close in front of her.

 

“Colin, you don’t need to keep wasting time on me.”

 

“How can this be called wasting time? I like you.” Colin was being quite serious now. “When we get back this time, just consider our relationship, okay? How about it?”

 

“Did you skip biology class?” Wei Lan’s voice was neutral, with an unconscious huskiness. “Ordinary people and deviants can’t have sex. Even kissing risks infection. No one would agree to us being together.”

 

“If we can’t do it, then we won’t. If we can’t kiss, then we’ll embrace.”

 

“If I really need it—” Wei Lan said, “I just want a lover I can be normally intimate with.”

 

“A couple days ago, I bought some small toys…” As if affected, Colin’s voice also became husky, his ears turning red. “We could use toys that both of us can feel during sex… if you’re willing.”

 

“…Colin, you don’t need to compromise yourself.”

 

The two parted on bad terms. Before leaving, Wei Lan glanced in Sang Jue’s direction, clearly having known he was there all along.

 

Sang Jue unconsciously stepped back and bumped into a familiar scent.

 

He turned his head and looked up. From this angle, he could only see Huo Yanji’s smooth jawline.

 

“Eavesdropping?”

 

“…I wasn’t. I just happened to see.” Sang Jue asked curiously, “What are toys that both people can feel?”

 

“…Don’t know.”

 

“You don’t know either?” Sang Jue didn’t quite believe it. “Do you really not know?”

 

“You can ask Colin.” Huo Yanji said flatly. “We need to depart.”

 

Sang Jue hesitated, then went around to the other side of the tree: “I’ll be done soon. Don’t look.”

 

While taking care of his physiological needs, Sang Jue didn’t forget to ask: “If deviants and ordinary people can’t do intimate things, why doesn’t Colin choose to become a deviant?”

 

Huo Yanji’s answer came from behind the tree: “His genetic testing was unqualified. He can’t accept gene contamination.”

 

Sang Jue understood: “Then it can only be Platonic love, but Colonel Wei Lan doesn’t seem to want that.”

 

Huo Yanji remained noncommittal.

 

Platonic love—a pure term that only appeared in ancient books.

 

During the peaceful periods of prehistoric civilization, humans still couldn’t control their desires, let alone in today’s crisis-ridden times when almost everyone lived by the philosophy of carpe diem.

 

Staying chaste for someone you’re attracted to? What a joke—who knows whether tomorrow it’ll be your beloved or yourself who dies.

 

“Do you need to go? I’ll wait for you.” Sang Jue came out and added, “I won’t peek.”

 

“No need.” Huo Yanji removed his gloves. “Look up.”

 

Sang Jue was stunned. Huo Yanji’s warm fingertips touched the bandage on his neck.

 

“It’s bleeding through.”

 

Sang Jue’s heart jumped. Actually, the scrape on his neck had mostly healed, but a few hours ago when he wanted to feed Old Karl his blood, he had reopened the wound.

 

There had been an injury here originally, making it easier to conceal.

 

Sang Jue: “Maybe the vehicle was too bumpy and the wound reopened…”

 

“Is that so.”

 

Back by the armored convoy, Huo Yanji took out a medical kit from under the vehicle compartment seats. Just as he was about to help Sang Jue unwrap the old bandage, his wrist was grabbed.

 

Sang Jue stammered for once: “I, I’ll do it myself…”

 

Once the bandage was unwrapped, Huo Yanji would definitely see that this bleeding wound was newly made, and then it would be hard to explain.

 

“Really, I can do it myself.” Sang Jue said. “You made it hurt a bit last time.”

 

Huo Yanji had indeed wrapped the bandage very tightly last time—it was quite painful.

 

Colin, who had just walked over and only heard the last sentence, was shocked.

 

He didn’t even know whether to be more shocked that their general had finally broken his abstinence, or that the object of this transgression was a youth who seemed to have only looks going for him.

 

Meeting Huo Yanji’s gaze, Colin’s tongue nearly tied itself in knots: “I didn’t hear anything. Congratulations, sir… on your happy union, eternal harmony, early wedding night…”

 

Damn! Colin almost slapped himself—he was babbling nonsense.

 

Sang Jue turned to look at him, his eyes radiating a pure “what are you talking about” expression.

 

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