Desperate people, accept the seed of my soul!

Lin Shen tried to stand up by supporting himself on the ground, but his knees buckled halfway down and he swayed to the side.

He immediately braced himself against the cold cement floor, his fingertips brushing against the bloodstains on the ground, and gritted his teeth to try again.

I finally managed to stand up, but my legs were shaking uncontrollably, as if I were walking on cotton.

"Yes." His voice was hoarse, like sandpaper rubbing against wood.

Xu Suyuan nodded without saying anything more.

She walked ahead, leading the way to the exit of the abandoned chemical industrial park, her pace slow enough for the people behind her to keep up.

The night wind rustled the wild grass, and occasionally a truck would drive by on the provincial highway in the distance, its headlights casting long shadows of two people on the ground.

After walking for about ten minutes, the two stopped in front of an abandoned boiler room.

This is the temporary hiding place that Xu Suyuan just marked. There are no surveillance cameras, and the walls are thick enough to block the view from the outside.

Xu Suyuan leaned against the iron door of the boiler room and looked at Lin Shen who was following behind her.

"What's your name?"

"Lin Shen." He leaned against the wall, panting, cold sweat mixed with blood dripping from his forehead.

Why did they arrest you?

Lin Shen remained silent for a few seconds.

He mentally reviewed the risks: this woman had the same seed as him, had just saved his life, showed no signs of stealing his data, and the benefits of telling the truth far outweighed the risks.

Seeds don't lie, and those of the same kind won't harm each other.

"From the Provincial Institute of Biology." His voice remained calm, as if he were reporting experimental data. "I have a neural signal transmission model in my mind that can decode motor intentions, allowing paralyzed patients to regain control of their limbs. They want this algorithm."

Xu Suyuan's fingers, which were spinning the coin, suddenly stopped.

She suddenly remembered something Han Xiao had told her before: a comrade in his army broke his spine while clearing mines, becoming paralyzed from the waist down. After being discharged from the army, he spent eight years in a wheelchair. In the end, not wanting to be a burden on his parents, he drank pesticide and died.

As Han Xiao spoke, he was teaching her how to aim with a coin. He pressed too hard with his fingertips, deforming the edge of the coin.

"People from the Five Mountains Society?" Xu Suyuan's voice turned cold.

Lin Shen nodded.

"Then you have to live." Xu Suyuan looked at him. "I have a place to stay, and two companions, both of whom were harmed by the Five Mountains Society. Your seed is the same as ours. Come with us, and you can live to finish that model."

Lin Shen lowered his head and looked at the blood-soaked cotton ball in his hand.

Dark red blood smeared on the white cotton pad, like the blood that flowed from the corner of Song Yuanming's mouth when he collapsed under the precast concrete slab that day.

He also remembered the old man grabbing his wrist with a strength that belied his serious injury, saying, "You can do it all by yourself."

He is not alone now.

Someone saved him when he was about to die; he had people of his own kind he could trust; and he had the means to survive.

"Okay." He looked up into Xu Suyuan's eyes, his pupils reflecting the sliver of moonlight filtering in from the boiler room, as bright as the cold fluorescent lights in a laboratory. "Thank you."

The voice was very soft, as if it hadn't been spoken for a long time, yet each word was pronounced very clearly.

Xu Suyuan waved her hand, turned around and pushed open the door to the boiler room.

The wind blew in through the door, stirring up dust. She walked ahead, her voice carried on the wind: "Hide here for the night, and I'll take you back to our hideout tomorrow morning. They'll be happy to know you have new companions."

Lin Shen followed her into the boiler room, leaned against the cold wall, and slowly closed his eyes.

The silvery-white seed deep in his consciousness was still slightly warm, like the temperature of Song Yuanming's fingertips each time he handed him the calculation paper.

He felt it again.

……

Morning light streamed in through the broken windowpanes of the abandoned research institute, casting irregular patches of light on the concrete floor, while fine dust particles floated in the air.

When Meng Zhaowen woke up leaning against the radiator in the corner, the faint roots that had spread out sent back a message before her consciousness—there were two footsteps seven hundred meters away, one light and one heavy, not walking fast, it was Xu Suyuan's pace, and there was an unfamiliar body temperature beside her.

He tensed his back instantly, and with a slight twitch of his fingertips, several vines hidden in the cracks in the wall immediately taut like arrows ready to be released.

He kicked Liu Zhen, who was dozing against a pillar next to him. Liu Zhen suddenly opened his eyes, and a dark blue arc of electricity shot out from his fingertip, flashing for a moment in the dim room before quickly disappearing.

"Someone's coming," Meng Zhaowen said in a low voice. "It's So-won, and there's a stranger too."

Liu Zhen nodded, stood up silently, and placed his palm on the exposed electrical wires on the wall. The status of the entire building's electrical grid was immediately and clearly transmitted into his mind. All alarm devices were ready to be triggered. As long as he had a thought, all metal within fifty meters would be subjected to deadly high voltage.

The two men stood guard behind the door, one on each side, listening to the footsteps getting closer and closer until they stopped outside the iron gate.

The sound of the key being inserted into the lock was very soft. When Xu Suyuan pushed the door open, Meng Zhaowen's gaze first fell on her to make sure she was not injured before moving to the young man behind her.

The man was very thin, with high cheekbones and a fresh bloodstain on his left cheek that had scabbed over. His black coat was torn in several places, and there were bits of wild grass stuck to his shoulders. He looked like he could be blown away by a gust of wind.

His eyes were unusual; they lacked the panic of ordinary fugitives and the tension of those facing the unknown. They were as calm as two bottomless pools of water. When his gaze swept over them, he paused only slightly, without any further reaction.

"Who is he?" Meng Zhaowen's fingers rested on the vines beside her, her vigilance unwavering.

"Lin Shen." Xu Suyuan stepped aside to let him in, then closed the iron gate behind her. "He was cornered in the chemical industrial park by the Five Mountains Society, but was just rescued last night. He has the seed on him."

Meng Zhaowen's eyebrows twitched, and he deliberately released a trace of the dark green seed aura from the depths of his consciousness, a faint warmth spreading out with the air.

Almost instantly, a silvery-white light appeared in the young man's palm. Three warm energies of different frequencies collided and instantly produced a clear resonance, like three strings being plucked at the same time, buzzing and drilling into the depths of the soul through the bones and blood.

That warmth contained no hatred, no hostility, only an extremely pure certainty, without a trace of impurity.

Meng Zhaowen relaxed her tense shoulders and back, removed the vines that had been lurking behind the door, and pointed to the iron chair next to the lab table: "Sit."

The four sat down around the rusty lab bench. The dim incandescent light above them swayed, casting their shadows onto the mottled wall.

Xu Suyuan tapped the table with her fingertips, signaling Lin Shen to introduce himself.