Didn't you go to Teyvat to earn money to support me?

Pado's body jerked violently, and the fur on her tail stood on end! The name "Cat Cat" was used only by Eve in the entire Fire Chaser Base; she was the only one who used it, and she was extremely embarrassed.

How did things that circulated in our little circle end up in Ling's hands?! We agreed they were just meant to be cherished memories of our youth, Vivi, you're setting a bad example for the younger generation!

"Well... after all, Wawa is my boyfriend, Pado."

Ling rolled her eyes at her. "You want to have a kitten too?"

"Uh, hehehe, that's just the result. The result isn't important, the process is." After saying that, Pado immediately dodged away, avoiding the frying pan that Ling angrily threw at her, and stuck out her tongue and laughed, "Okay, okay, I didn't come here to annoy you on purpose, your goji berries need to boil."

Ling felt helpless, but she wasn't really angry; she was just a little jealous. Being locked up here for a month had made her feel so depressed that her hormones were out of whack. Forget about seeing Vivi or Pado; even if Sakura came to visit her, she'd feel a pang of jealousy.

Add goji berries to the pot, along with sea cucumber, abalone, and rabbit meat.

"Honestly, Ling, your cooking skills have gotten better and better since you joined Moth Chaser. You two sisters really do have the genes for cooking." Pado followed behind the busy Ling, watching curiously. "Or is it that all Asian girls are like this, they learn to cook after they find a boyfriend? Sakura also taught herself to make sushi and stuff to raise her baby."

“That’s called being virtuous and gentle, a Yamato Nadeshiko. Do you even know what a Yamato Nadeshiko is?” Rei sprinkled spices.

Goji berries are actually very good for both men and women. From an Asian perspective, they nourish the kidneys and replenish qi, making them quite nourishing for some people who are prone to sexual activity. Although the mention of goji berries evokes images of midlife crisis, which makes Ling somewhat resistant, she still needs them quite a bit.

So she always keeps a large glass jar of high-quality goji berries on hand. Many people only know that girls have abundant energy and boys need to eat goji berries as a staple food. But they don't know that the reverse is also true.

Chapter Twenty: Teenage Girls Reflecting on Pregnancy

"I'll make some goji berry and seafood porridge. It'll be sweet and savory. Hmm, adding some red dates will help replenish my blood." Ling thought about Eve while cooking a nutritious breakfast for herself and Pado, who had come to freeload.

Having been here for so long, she had a general understanding of the Son of Man Project. Eve inherited the genes of nine Fusion Warriors, thus possessing the strongest Honkai adaptability among all of humanity. Theoretically, he had already surpassed humanity, able to treat even a wave of Honkai attack as if it were a gentle breeze.

After Eve's birth, the Firemoth had a salvation plan called "Project Stigmata." The detailed plan was to modify humanity's genes so that all future humans would be born with the innate ability to control Honkai energy, becoming the chosen ones. This plan might sacrifice many people without talent, but as long as all humanity could control Honkai energy through their own will, then Honkai itself would be nothing to fear.

To put it simply, if you can't fight against the Honkai, then adapt to it.

However, this plan will take a very long time, and research progress is extremely slow. The Fire Moth has yet to discover this gene, leading many to speculate that it's not a genetic issue at all. They believe that the Honkai calamity may not even be a native Earth disaster, and that there is no such thing as a gene capable of controlling Honkai. Currently, all those using Honkai energy are Fusion Warriors, who are essentially just borrowing the genes of Honkai Beasts.

But the reason this plan has been preserved and remains one of the most important plans for salvation is because Eve is standing here.

Eve standing here means that the Stigmata Project has a chance of success.

—A male infant born through a series of coincidences, combining the underlying genes of nine fusion warriors—perhaps an anomaly, or perhaps a divine gift. Eve himself is the ultimate dream of the "Stigmata Project," born capable of fusing the genes of anyone, even a Herrscher. Because he is not perfect, and the genes of nine fusion warriors are insufficient, he was born needing genetic completion.

The inability to complete the system might not be important; what matters is this physique capable of fusing the genes of others. It turns out that Eve can even fuse with the genes of a Herrscher, stealing the recognition of the Herrscher's core, and that supreme Honkai will actually allowed him to obtain the Herrscher's core!

The Fire-Chasing Moth even attempted to steal the power of the Herrscher by using Eve's constitution. Theoretically, the Herrscher's power comes from communication with the Honkai Will, which the Herrscher receives from the Honkai Will through the Imaginary Dimension. Eve, by fusing with the Herrscher's genes, could deceive the Honkai Will, theoretically making it possible for her to obtain power from it. In other words, theoretically, she should be able to replicate the Herrscher's abilities.

Although it's not possible to do that right now.

In short, Eve possesses a wealth of untapped potential. She is the most unique and important experimental subject within the entire Moth of Fire, so important that the higher-ups named her development plan the "Son of Man Project," drawing on biblical quotations.

However, among the many rules of the Son of Man project, what the girls often mention is Eve's offspring.

Replicating Eve has proven impossible, but what about offspring?

Moths have conducted numerous experiments on artificial insemination, but without obtaining any useful samples. Möbius once attempted to reproduce with Eve using cells from over 12,000 women from Arctic gene banks, but not a single one survived.

Ultimately, Möbius and May were forced to accept an absurd argument: although Eve appeared to be an ordinary human, she might already be reproductively isolated from humans. Theoretically, she was already a new kind of human, surpassing humanity, like the first Homo sapiens to smelt iron. How many generations were they separated from those ignorant ancient apes? Could Homo sapiens and ancient apes possibly have offspring?

However, this argument had no place in the Fire Moth. The female fusion warriors or researchers at the base felt that it was just that the in-vitro fertilization technology was inadequate. They believed that children created by technological means were soulless and therefore could not be born, but they did not say that the traditional process was useless.

So the girls at the base became volunteers to experiment on the dolls with great enthusiasm. The Infinite Laboratory even had to post a notice saying that there was a waiting list to reserve a doll, and secretly added a clause that married women could not apply for volunteering without their family's consent, which caused many older women who missed out on the Son of Man project to complain.

"But they don't even consider that if nothing happened, fine, but if they actually get pregnant, the base will definitely not let them abort the child." Pado and Ling brought the goji berry seafood porridge to the table and discussed these topics. "Doing this kind of thing secretly, and then in the end their figures get out of shape and their families find out, like their husbands finding out or something... Ugh, just thinking about it makes them feel ashamed for the rest of their lives!"

"Really? I don't think so. The researchers at your base are far more excited about the experimental results than about ethics and morality. I feel that with those perverted researchers at your Fire Chaser Base, if something like that really happened, their husbands would actually be hoping the pregnant women would be there so they could have easier access to their research..."

"Hey, what kind of perverts do you think the researchers at the base are?!"

Although it was all just a joke, those cheerful voices are long gone from the Fire Chaser Base today. Whether it was the researcher and the fusion warrior sister pursuing the doll, or the lonely young woman who signed up as a volunteer by pressing her handprint while her boyfriend or husband was sleeping, or those old scholars who rushed to the Child of Man project group and trembled with anger at the embarrassed Mei and the clueless Eve... Himiko, Destobia, Blanca, Scar... all such noise has vanished with the war.

However, in the outside world, many girls do not want to have children.

Because of fear of pain, fear of life-threatening situations, fear of affecting the figure maintained for twenty or thirty years, fear of affecting marital relationships, fear of lowering the quality of life, there are many reasons for fear.

After all, ten months of pregnancy is an unknown journey for most girls. When Ling looked at those women who were so haggard after giving birth that they looked completely different, and at those mothers who seemed to be young girls one year and then turned into middle-aged women who were fed, diapered, disheveled, and had no time to take care of themselves, she couldn't help but think that giving birth was too terrible.

But what if you could actually get pregnant?

Ling sat at the table, stroking her slender belly, and suddenly realized that she didn't seem to feel any fear at all.

She felt she would admit it; if something really happened, she would definitely admit it, even if the child's father was a teenager who didn't even understand what "love" meant.

She can take off her favorite sailor uniform and short skirt and put on a loose dress; she no longer eats any spicy or oily and salty food, and makes herself nutritious meals on time; she doesn't stay up late every day and goes out for a walk to enjoy the sun during the day; even when buying daily necessities, she asks Ying to check the ingredient list carefully, making sure there are no trace elements that could affect the baby in her belly.

Even when she's sick or has a cold, she won't take a single sip of medicine. Instead, she orders Shen Liang to come here immediately and use the Black Abyss White Flower to heal her naturally.

Why is this?

Ling was well aware that her reason for thinking this way stemmed from the devastating news that she had become the Herrscher's prototype. She initially didn't believe it, but Mei told her herself that the meticulous woman who deeply loved Eve wouldn't lie about something that would upset Eve.

Perhaps Honkai has this kind of twisted sense of humor. Humanity's current hopes are all tied to the moths drawn to the flame, so it's all the more necessary to choose the "game" that will shatter those hopes the most. She is the younger sister of Sakura, one of the strongest fusion warriors, and the girlfriend of Eve, the son of man. Choosing her as a vessel will only deepen the pain and torment one suffers.

In the past, she certainly wouldn't have thought about something as foolish as pregnancy. After all, she was still far too young; Sakura was only in her early twenties, and she even felt like she was still just a child following Sakura around. But perhaps it was the instinct of any animal to continue its offspring? After learning this devastating news, she began to think silently.

She had to take childbirth seriously, just as a woman always realizes at some point that she has a great thing to do yet: become a mother.

Every mother has had such a great moment.

Pado glanced at Ling, who had only taken a sip of soup after serving it and then remained in a daze.

But between girls, you can tell just by looking at their shifty eyes. Pado wagged her tail, blew some hot air from the porridge, licked the surface of the soup little by little with her little tongue, and then meowed and withdrew her mouth after being burned.

She put down her bowl, leaned on the table, and tilted her head to look at Ling. "I think ordinary people can't conceive for a baby. Saying it's reproductive isolation might be a bit of an exaggeration, but what Sister Snake and the others said isn't without reason."

"What you're saying is... why is it impossible for me?" Ling asked, somewhat unconvinced, staring at the cat-like girl who was only wearing a tube top and hot pants.

Although they are good friends, Pado even visits her and sleeps with her, chatting and watching movies at night. But after all, she is also a rival who has been tormented by the same boy. Well, she can't really be called a rival. Wawa is the darling of the group, and there is no way to build a saga around him. Anyway, everyone knows each other without saying a word.

“Snake Sister once got annoyed by Danzhu and the others and said that the human body has a self-protection mechanism. Many times it’s not that you can’t conceive, but that your body doesn’t dare to.” Pado thought for a moment, “The baby is a very special child. He is quite powerful. Think about it, wouldn’t the fetus that inherits his genes also be very powerful? So in order to grow, the fetus will definitely absorb nutrients that ordinary women cannot provide at all. This nutritional requirement may even drain an ordinary person dry and drive them to death.”

"Forced to death?"

"Because the fetus directly absorbs nutrients from the mother's body during development, how could a weak human possibly bear such a drain? So the self-protection mechanism limits this, making conception impossible." Pado looked at Ling's incredulous expression and wagged her tail somewhat embarrassedly. "So no matter how many times you try, it's useless. Your body will reject the life-sustaining substances of the baby. On a life level, you are weak and he is strong, there's nothing you can do."

Ling was very unhappy. Pado's words implied that she was not worthy, and that the superior life inheritance material of the doll looked down on the inheritance material hidden in her body.

Pado reached out to touch her lower abdomen, but Ling slapped her hand away in annoyance, and Pado smiled sheepishly.

"However, it's not entirely impossible. If you're willing to provide continuous nutrition, you might be able to handle it. It's just that Sister Snake guesses that an ordinary person's body would probably need to be cultivated for a very long time, possibly more than ten months of pregnancy, three to five years is not out of the question. It would be best to cut it out halfway through development and cultivate it in vitro, but that would be quite a challenge to one's moral bottom line..."

"What?" Ling asked instinctively.

"If a fetus is cultured in vitro when it's only halfway developed, it's probably still in the embryonic stage, most likely just a placenta or a fleshy mass..."

"How come she gave birth to a ball after three years of pregnancy?!"

"Ugh, it's even more disgusting than I imagined, but Snake Sister said that you Asians should be able to accept this."

"How could I possibly accept that!"

"Wasn't Nezha born in the same way...?"

Ling was shocked for a long time, and even lost the confidence to argue. Then she said weakly, "If that's the case, I don't want it... I want a normal, beautiful daughter. I can't stand any messy methods..."

“I can’t stand it either. Actually, even a researcher like Sister Mei can’t stand it. Only Sister Snake can laugh and talk to us about these disgusting things.” Pado said with lingering fear, “So you know, we’re all pretty traditional girls. The reason you saw me lying face down in the videotape is because it’s easier that way…”

"Shut up! I don't want to hear the details!" Ling slammed her hand on the table in annoyance, but couldn't help laughing at the cat-like girl's aggrieved expression. In the end, she could only sigh deeply. "But it's all useless to say these things. They're all just guesses and nonsense. You fusion warriors have good physical abilities, but I haven't seen you succeed."

“So, maybe the doll really has surpassed humanity.” Pado rested her chin on her hands and blinked. “But the thought that such a perfect and great superhuman still has to obediently be my boyfriend makes me so happy! Incredibly happy!”

"Enough! This is the fifth time you've insisted to me that Wawa is your boyfriend! You're just deliberately trying to annoy me while I can't get out!" Ling shouted.

"No, I didn't! I definitely didn't brag to you that starting tomorrow I'll be taking turns looking after the baby! Waaaaah, don't throw chopsticks at me! They'll get all sticky with porridge!"

"Still talking! Still talking! Still talking! Sister Pado, you can't bully anyone else, so you deliberately pick on me! You and Wilvi are in cahoots!" Ling lunged forward!

"Waaaaaah! Eh eh eh meow meow meow meow!"

The two girls rolled around on the sofa, laughing. They'd gotten up before dawn to make breakfast. Ling was only wearing an apron with her underwear underneath, while Pado's everyday attire was far more revealing. They wrestled and the straps came off, the apron was pulled open, and their hair ties were ripped off. Half-undressed, their bare shoulders swaying, they were already stunningly beautiful girls, and even their playful antics were a delight to behold.

"Huh? You actually smell like Sister Mei's perfume... Damn it! It smells like Doll!" Ling sniffed at Pado's collarbone, twitched her little nose, and then flew into a rage, continuing to sniff at her chest.

Pado laughed out loud from the tickling sensation, squirming on the sofa to avoid Ling's sniffing. "How come you have such a sensitive sense of smell, just like Sister Ying? Are all the people in your family foxes?! It tickles! It tickles so much! Waaah, don't pull my ears, meow!"

The two playful girls, engrossed in their antics, didn't notice that Shen Liang had already pushed open the door and entered. He stood there silently watching them, a complex expression on his delicate, cute, but usually expressionless face.

That expression of uncertainty—whether to let go and let them be or to catch them in the act.

Chapter Twenty-One: The Lawgiver, Is He Important?

Most women would rather have their husbands see them chatting and laughing with other men than have them see them with their best friends.

Because their uninhibited behavior at those times can shatter a boyfriend's illusions. Girlfriends discuss juicy topics, touch and pinch each other, and even kiss and hug each other. Anyone who has ever had girlfriends can probably relate to that.

Fortunately, Shen Liang wasn't the type to worry about what his girlfriend and cat would do when they cuddled together. Mei taught him to control his possessiveness, because being too possessive can be very troublesome.

For example, if Kevin brings her breakfast, flowers, or love letters, he might get jealous and angry, which isn't considered being overly possessive. However, if Greta brings her something like a handmade origami toy, and Shen Liang gets angry, thinking that this little girl is trying to take away Mei's doting affection for him, then that would be a sign of immaturity.

So he gradually became much more tolerant. Although the moth that chases the flame is a common sight, Shen Liang didn't care much about it.

Rather, it's more accurate to say that even a perverted lesbian who only likes pretty girls would be moved by his looks. He doesn't need to care about yuri, because no matter how their orientation changes, they will all be compatible with Shen Liang. Möbius once said that this is because his underlying genes contain Alicia's "sweetness." As a human child specially modified by Alicia, he was born in accordance with the aesthetic preferences of the vast majority of people.

It could be said that his only problem in terms of appearance is that he never grows up, which is why he earned the nickname "Doll".

“Baby…Baby’s back! Good morning…Good morning! I have seafood porridge, would you like some? It’s very nourishing.” Pado said stiffly, while Ling lay nonchalantly on the cat girl, glanced at Shen Liang, and licked Pado’s cat ears in a show of defiance.

"Meow!" Paddy's ears were extremely sensitive. She let out a startled cry and looked at Ling in horror. Damn it, the doll is here and you still dare to play like this? You haven't actually awakened some bad thing because you've been with the doll for so long and he's so beautiful and has such a feminine appearance, have you? No matter how beautiful the doll is, he's still a boy! I'm a female cat! I don't have the ability to satisfy you!