Desperate people, accept the seed of my soul!

Shen Hanzhou poured the weighed raw materials into the reaction flask, and the rotor of the magnetic stirrer began to rotate.

The solution changed from colorless to pale yellow, and the smell of ethyl acetate seeped out from the bottle opening.

He pushed up his metal-framed glasses, a hint of ferocity hidden beneath his calm expression.

He stared at the solution in the cuvette, its color changing from pale yellow to amber, exactly matching the endpoint color described in his senior's experimental record.

He tested the purity, and the value was 98.7%, which was two points higher than the batch in the Five Mountains Alliance laboratory.

He put the cuvette back on the table and smiled at the data board.

After laughing, he immediately composed himself, encrypted and packaged the synthesized data, and saved it to a USB drive.

Shen Hanzhou had been with the Five Mountains Society for six years and was all too familiar with how these underground organizations operated.

From the very first day he joined the Five Mountains Alliance, he began to prepare a way out for himself.

He secretly maintained contact with two organizations—the Xiongbei Society, the largest underground biomedical force in the north, and "Chiji," a local organization in Lieyang Province.

The Xiongbei Company's sphere of influence is mainly located in the three northern provinces, specializing in the smuggling and trade of prohibited drugs and biological products.

The Five Mountains Society's influence extends across the globe, but when it comes to the underground network in the three northern provinces, the Xiongbei Society is superior.

Red Thorn is a local gray organization in Lieyang Province. It has few members, but it has been rooted in the area for more than 20 years and has very deep connections in both logistics and document forgery.

The founder of Chiji had his territory swallowed up by the Five Mountains Society, and all the core members died on the rooftop. The remaining remnants went underground and have been waiting for an opportunity to take revenge.

When Shen Hanzhou was synthesizing prohibited drugs within the Five Mountains Society, he helped Chiji dispose of a batch of controlled raw materials that had been seized by the authorities through an intermediary.

After that collaboration, Chiji owed him a favor.

The day after Shen Hanzhou settled in Baishi Town, he secretly contacted Chiji's contact point in Guangyang City.

Chiji sent two people to meet him—two people he had known for three years, Zhou Ting and Wang Zhaoping.

Zhou Ting was in charge of the fake documents, while Wang Zhaoping managed the logistics line. Back then, that batch of controlled raw materials was transported out through Wang Zhaoping's logistics line, bypassing the Five Mountains Association's inspection.

The two didn't say much when they saw him. Zhou Ting tossed him a bag of compressed biscuits and a car key.

Shen Hanzhou made contact with Xiongbei Company through Chiji's channels.

Xiongbei Company was extremely interested in the drug formula in his hands—something that the Five Mountains Society had been secretly developing for more than a year. By being the first to copy it, they could not only profit but also strangle the Five Mountains Society.

Shen Hanzhou's conditions were: he would provide the complete synthesis route and process parameters, Xiongbei Company would provide the raw materials and a safe haven for the finished products, and Chiji would be responsible for transportation and cover.

The three parties agreed to complete the handover three days later at an abandoned cement plant 20 kilometers north of Baishi Town.

Shen Hanzhou kept a backup copy, hiding it in a place only he knew about.

He doesn't trust anyone, but he knows his own worth.

As long as the drug formula remains locked in his mind, Xiong Bei and Chi Ji will not let him die.

Shen Hanzhou reached into his pocket, found the packet of compressed biscuits Zhou Ting had given him, tore open the packaging, and took a bite.

The chewing sounds were clear in the cellar; he stopped after the third bite.

It's so quiet outside.

Evenings in Whitestone shouldn't be this quiet.

The neon sign of the general store at the town entrance buzzes, the dog in the neighboring yard barks for food around six o'clock, and occasionally a sand truck rolls over the speed bumps on the provincial highway in the distance.

Now the dogs have stopped barking, the hum of the neon signs has stopped, and even the sound of the wind whistling through the corrugated iron roof has ceased.

The entire neighborhood felt like it was trapped inside an overturned glass jar.

Shen Hanzhou placed the biscuits on the table, reached for the reagent bottle on the lab bench with his right hand, and slowly unscrewed the cap.

He squatted down, pressed the bottle opening against the edge of the door crack, and tilted it outwards.

Ethyl acetate seeped out along the cement floor, and a pungent odor spread outside the door.

A low cough immediately came from outside the door.

It turned out that someone had already reached the outside of the door and was listening to the sounds inside when they were choked by the sudden stench.

Shen Hanzhou immediately turned around and rushed towards the innermost escape passage in the cellar—a narrow opening converted from a sewage pipe, only wide enough for one person to crawl through.

He put the USB drive in his mouth and pressed it under his tongue, then grabbed the rusted handles on the inner wall of the pipe with both hands and drilled inside.

The door-breaking tool behind them slammed into the door panel, cracking the door frame on the first impact.

The second time, he simply tore the iron gate off the hinge.

The dense sound of tactical boots pounding on the concrete floor filled the entire cellar.

Shen Hanzhou crawled forward desperately, his palms were cut by the rust on the pipe wall, and blood dripped into the sewage at the bottom of the drain pipe.

A thought flashed through his mind—the address of this bungalow was transferred to him by Xiongbei Company through Chiji.

Kumahoku Company says Shiraishi Township is "absolutely safe".

But the people chasing me were already at the door; they knew where he was beforehand.

Only three parties knew this address—Kumakiku Company, Akashi, and himself.

He couldn't help but begin to suspect Zhou Ting and Wang Zhaoping.

As Shen Hanzhou emerged from behind the chicken coop, a barrage of gunfire erupted from the bungalow behind him—an execution-style shot.

He lay panting heavily behind the rotten wooden planks of the chicken coop, a USB drive still in his mouth.

At this critical moment, his senior sister's face suddenly flashed into his mind.

A week before her senior sister's accident, Shen Yanhui was adjusting some notes in the lab when she suddenly said, "Hanzhou, we're both getting on in years, why don't we just get together and live together?"

She said this while adding buffer solution to a beaker, her tone casual, as if she were joking.

Shen Hanzhou was staring at the centrifuge at the time, and without turning her head, she replied, "Senior sister, don't tease me."

Two days later, after working overtime until late at night, Shen Yan turned off the light in the fume hood, turned around and leaned against the lab bench, lowered her voice and said, "Serving the Five Mountains Society is not a long-term solution. We need to find a way to get rid of it."

Shen Hanzhou was organizing chromatograms at the time and casually replied, "Okay."

Now, lying behind the chicken coop, he finally realized—his senior sister had said she sensed she wouldn't live much longer.

I hate myself for not realizing it then; otherwise, I could have escaped with my senior sister.

Although his obsession was to survive, he also wished to survive with his senior sister.

Shen Hanzhou bit down on the USB drive, forcibly pushing his senior sister's face out of his mind.

He cannot die here.

He rode his old motorcycle, which was hidden in the chicken coop, off the dirt road.

Behind them, all the streetlights in White Stone Town went out—the Five Mountains Society had cut off the power to the entire town to ensure that no cameras could capture the operation.

Shen Hanzhou twisted the accelerator to the floor in the darkness, the cold wind blowing into his collar, and the bloodstains on his hands dried and stuck to the handlebars.

He had only one thought: the potion was in his hands and was extremely valuable; if Zhou Ting and Wang Zhaoping really sold him out, he would kill them.

Shen Hanzhou rode less than two kilometers out of Baishi Town when three sets of headlights appeared in his rearview mirror.

His heart skipped a beat: How did they catch up so quickly? The Five Mountains Society had already figured out his escape route.

He twisted the accelerator and turned onto a gravel side road next to the provincial highway, with only one thought in his mind: he couldn't be caught, or he would die.

Three minutes later, he turned off the headlights, stopped the engine at an abandoned water station by the roadside, and hid for five minutes. Shen Hanzhou's heart was pounding so hard it felt like it was going to jump out of his throat.

Then the lights came on again in the rearview mirror, and all three sets of lights were still there, with the same spacing as before.