Chapter 188

Chapter 188

The story should begin in 2004. No-perhaps it began much earlier than that.

The biology division at Wisdom Biotech Company established a project team for *Regeneration of Nerve Cells and Cloning Research of Stem Cells* and began conducting secret research into human cloning.

They also secretly selected the genes of a group of outstanding employees within the company and used those people as templates for cloning experiments.

There must have been many failures along the way, but in 1998, the most successful batch of experimental clones was finally born.

Then, in 2015, Wisdom Biotech Company successfully developed its *Quantum Computer* and moved it into the testing phase.

Disagreements arose over the selection of test subjects, so the company’s senior executives decided to use the clones they had personally raised for the Time Machine trials. That was why, as Meng Ran had said, the names and personal information of every test subject had been concealed, accessible only to senior management.

Between 2015 and 2016, every subject who participated in the time-travel experiments developed symptoms of an incurable brain disease within six months of taking part.

The subjects were hospitalized for treatment, and researchers from the biology division remained involved throughout the entire process.

During treatment, perhaps because two clones created from the same genetic template had both survived, the researchers accidentally discovered a way to treat the disease through cerebral nerve transplantation.

Later, Li Xiangyi and Jia Lingyuan tested the Time Machine, setting 2004 as their destination.

As for why they chose that particular year, Nan Mu believed there had to be a deeper reason.

It was possible they had simply picked 2004 at random.

But Nan Mu favored another explanation. During the cloning program, the biology division would create multiple clones from a single genetic template. If any of those clones developed defects while growing, they would be deemed flawed specimens and “disposed of.”

But after the researchers at Wisdom Biotech Company discovered cerebral nerve transplantation as a treatment, they finally realized the value of those “flawed specimens” they had destroyed. Regretting their earlier decision, they traveled back in time and removed the specimens from the disposal room before they could be eliminated.

That would explain the entry in the *Experiment Log* stating that six flawed specimens suddenly vanished in 2004. The company had been unable to identify who took them. That alone suggested the culprit was not only an insider but someone thoroughly familiar with the Biology Research Lab.

And because Jia Lingyuan had left all six children outside Happiness Orphanage, it also explained how they were later able to find Gu Zhishu and the others so quickly when they needed them. It explained why Jia Lingyuan’s group had been able to select Gu Zhishu, Zhaodi, and the others without first performing tissue-compatibility tests for the transplants.

Then came Meng Ran’s final Time Machine trial in 2020.

After the Time Machine was activated, the subject-who should have returned after thirty minutes-reappeared in the return chamber after only twenty.

Meng Ran had assumed something unusual had happened during the experiment. But looking back now, especially in light of the subject’s mysterious disappearance after spending just over twenty days in the observation room, the situation was likely far more complicated than Meng Ran had believed.

Meng Ran had also said that, in an effort to learn the final subject’s identity, she investigated the woman’s movements after she traveled back to 2004 and discovered that she had taken a little boy to an amusement park. One thing was now certain: the mysterious woman who had warned Nan Mu not to befriend Wen Miao was “the subject” who had traveled back to 2020.
But-

Nan Mu did not believe that “Subject A,” whom Meng Ran had sent back to 2004, and “Subject B,” who returned to 2020, were the same person.

He had two reasons.

First, the clones had grown up in observation rooms. Nan Mu had every reason to believe Wisdom Biotech Company subjected them to obedience training. Otherwise, the company would never have dared send them into a Time Machine bound for the past. Only after ensuring the clones would obey every order without question would Wisdom Biotech Company have taken such a risk.

Second, Meng Ran had said that when she first met Subject A, the girl had smiled and acted friendly. But when Subject B returned, she was frightened and disoriented. Meng Ran had also noticed that the girl’s skin looked visibly worse…

Those details offered a few clues.

Suppose Subject B had traveled from a future timeline back to 2004, then begun her return journey after meeting Nan Mu…

Perhaps the two signals resonated on the same frequency. Perhaps the timelines overlapped. Nan Mu had no way to know the exact cause.

But it was reasonable to imagine that Subject B had entered Subject A’s world. That would explain her panic and confusion. It would also explain why, despite the Time Machine’s unresolved problems, she suffered no symptoms during the twenty-odd days she spent in the observation room-misleading Meng Ran into believing the Time Machine had finally succeeded.

Meng Ran’s Time Machine had only ever been a half-finished prototype. Anything could have happened…

Subject B’s appearance had not aroused Meng Ran’s suspicions at the time, which meant she must have looked extraordinarily similar to Subject A-so similar that Meng Ran attributed the only visible difference to the deterioration of her skin.

What kind of people could look that much alike?

Subject B had traveled back from the future. Subject A, meanwhile, had never returned to the laboratory, which meant something must have happened to her in the past. Even if she had survived there until 2020, twenty years could never have aged her by only a few years…

Therefore, Subject B had to meet the following conditions:

1. She had to be older than Subject A, who was in her twenties, but not by much. A difference of only a few years would not account for such a noticeable change in her skin, so Subject B was probably in her thirties.

2. Subject B had traveled back from the future, most likely from around 2030.

3. Subject B looked almost identical to Subject A, but they were not the same person.

4. Meng Ran had said Subject A looked extremely familiar to her, which meant Subject B must have looked equally familiar. Subject A was a clone created from the genes of a Wisdom Biotech Company researcher, so Subject B most likely shared that origin.

At the time, all the clones were confined and conditioned inside Wisdom Biotech Company’s observation rooms. Subject B clearly did not resemble one of those captive, conditioned clones. That left only one possible answer: she was one of the children Jia Lingyuan had abandoned at Happiness Orphanage…

The subject was a woman, which meant she had to be one of three people: Wen Miao, Wen Tangtang, or Zhaodi.

But which one?

===

Once again, Nan Mu remembered the mysterious woman taking him back to the daycare center when he was little.

Holding her hand, he had looked up at her with eager anticipation and asked whether she would come again the next day.

She had not answered. Instead, she lowered her gaze and asked if he wanted to see her again.

When he nodded as hard as he could, she smiled gently and stroked his head. Her eyes held an indescribable mixture of mystery and reverence as she said, “Then let’s make a promise. If you can keep it, I’ll come see you again.”

The promise was this: stay away from a girl named Wen Miao. Never become her friend.