Chapter 187
Chapter 187
Qiu Ziyu was reading the Experimental Data Log from Regeneration of Nerve Cells and Cloning Research of Stem Cells.
An entry from 2004 had caught his attention.
The log was lengthy, but one section described a laboratory emergency in detail. An alarm had been triggered, yet no suspicious person was found that day. Six test subjects disappeared from the defective-subject disposal room: Nos. 2, 6, 11, 17, 25, and 31.
“Two, six, eleven, seventeen, twenty-five, thirty-one-exactly six.” Qiu Ziyu looked uneasy. “Could these subjects have been Wen Miao and the others?”
Nan Mu calculated the dates. In 2004, all six would have been six years old. The coincidence disturbed him too.
“There’s more.” Qiu Ziyu flipped several pages toward the front. “Look.”
Nan Mu leaned over to read.
Template A: three surviving cloned experimental samples (Nos. 1/2/3)
Template B: two surviving cloned experimental samples (Nos. 4/5)
Template C: one surviving cloned experimental sample (No. 6)
Template D: three surviving cloned experimental samples (Nos. 7/8/9)
…
Several lines later:
Template C has one survivor and no control group. No experimental value. Destruction recommended.
Template A has three survivors. No. 2 is redundant and underdeveloped. Destruction recommended.
…
The horrifying data chilled Nan Mu.
“If these experimental samples were cloned human beings…”
Then the defective subjects marked for destruction were living people deemed useless because they lacked a control group or were redundant.
They were human lives, yet the cold data treated them like disposable produce.
And those “experimental samples” would have grown into lovable Wen Tangtang, brilliant and capable Wen Xin, and the prodigy Wen Miao.
An invisible hand seemed to crush Nan Mu’s heart. The pressure left no room to breathe, draining his face of color.
“Nan Mu?”
Qiu Ziyu started when Nan Mu bowed his head and clutched his chest.
Nan Mu gritted his teeth and endured until the strange palpitation passed.
“Are you all right?”
He exhaled. “I’m fine.”
Drawing a deep breath, he forced himself back to their discussion.
“You’re right. This may explain why Wen Miao and the others grew up at Happiness Orphanage.”
Qiu Ziyu secretly watched him until his complexion improved. “But how did they get out of the lab? Did they escape?”
Six-year-old children?
A child raised in a laboratory might not even understand the outside world.
Nan Mu shook his head. “Probably not. I think…”
He abruptly fell silent.
After waiting, Qiu Ziyu prompted, “You think what?”
“Don’t you find the year 2004 strange?”
“What’s strange about it?”
Nan Mu rubbed his forehead unconsciously. “It feels extremely familiar.”
Qiu Ziyu stared. “Of course it does. You lived through 2004.”
“That’s not what I mean.” Nan Mu shot him a look. “Did something important happen that year?”
Qiu Ziyu thought. “I don’t know, but wasn’t that the year we first moved from the countryside to the city?”
Suddenly, he brightened with smug realization. “I know.”
Nan Mu looked at him expectantly.
Qiu Ziyu winked mysteriously. “That was the year we first met.”
Nan Mu was speechless.
“It’s true. We met that year.”
“I know,” Nan Mu said helplessly. “But I don’t mean something like meeting…”
Meeting?
Light pierced the fog. Nan Mu’s puzzled eyes cleared as the answer surfaced.
He finally understood why 2004 sounded so familiar.
“Meng Ran told me something.” His expression turned grave. “When Li Xiangyi and Jia Lingyuan tested the Time Machine, the year they traveled back to was 2004.”
Qiu Ziyu sobered and followed his reasoning. “They went to 2004 too? Why does everything lead to that year?”
Li Xiangyi and Jia Lingyuan’s Time Machine destination was 2004.
Wen Miao, Gu Zhishu, and the others were taken in by Happiness Orphanage in 2004.
And according to the Experimental Data Log, the test subjects disappeared in 2004.
“What was so special about 2004?” Qiu Ziyu asked.
Nan Mu rubbed his fingers together in thought, remembering the secret he had kept buried: the mysterious woman who took him to the amusement park had appeared in 2004 as well.
Countless fragments raced through his mind like frames of a film.
Meng Ran had said:
“Why was the return capsule set to 2004? That was management’s decision. I was only a researcher and followed orders.”
“Our Time Machine tests moved backward one year at a time, so logically we should never have reached 2004. I vaguely remember once seeing one of my husband Xu Lei’s work documents. I think Jia Lingyuan proposed 2004… but the exact destination didn’t matter, did it?”
…
The director of Happiness Orphanage had said:
“They left the children in thin white gowns without even giving them shoes. How could anyone be so heartless?”
“Even if they were in a hurry, they could have put shoes on them. Those poor children were freezing in the dead of winter…”
…
In a flash, revelation struck. The seemingly impassable barrier that had frustrated him for so long split open.
At last, Nan Mu understood everything.