American comic: From Beijing with Love, starting with a mutant.

Before he could even react, Stephen Chow saw a severed hand jump down from the incubator and stop in front of him.

Upon closer inspection, Old Zhou chuckled: "Little You, long time no see!"

The severed hand raised its middle finger at him.

"Looks like your life is pretty stable; you haven't even forgotten the internationally recognized hand gestures."

Just as Stephen Chow crouched down to shake hands with it, Ah You bypassed his fingertips and slapped down the red button on the wall.

Dozens of nozzles automatically lock in place, spraying disinfectant mist from head to toe onto the shoes.

"Who gave you permission to teleport in like that?!"

A person in a white coat rushed out from between two rows of incubators, with long, silvery-white hair spreading out in all directions.

She was wearing a slipper on her left foot and a blue shoe cover on her right.

A white-coated man, resembling a mad scientist, rushed towards the two, spitting everywhere.

"So what if you teleport? No need for disinfection? And you! You pork butcher, what's that black stuff on the sole of your shoe? Is it blood? Mud? Or some goji berries you stepped on in Fatty Wang's office?!"

Zhou Xingxing wiped the drool from his face, somewhat bewildered: "Professor Jiang Si, I haven't even said anything yet!"

"The more you open your mouth, the more bacteria you'll have!"

The carefree girl peeked out from behind Stephen Chow: "You didn't scold me for this long last time!"

"Last time you gave me advance notice, but today? You just jumped straight in from the hospital! What kind of place is a hospital? A place where germs have a reunion!"

Jiang Si picked up the scanner and scanned her from the top of her head all the way to the sole of her shoe, the machine beeping incessantly.

"Go outside to disinfect, leave the milk tea behind."

Why was the milk tea left behind?

"Detect the source of pollution!"

"Then I'm leaving!" The carefree girl, unwilling to let go, pouted and retreated directly into the blue-purple light band: "Goodbye!"

As soon as the light strip disappeared, Professor Jiang Si chased after him and cursed a couple of times. When he turned back, Zhou Xingxing was still wiping his face.

"Where are the mayflies?"

"How dare you ask! The patient is in this condition, and you just drop him off at the hospital and run off to America to demolish buildings!"

Professor Jiang Si, grumbling and cursing, swiped open the isolation door: "Follow me, don't touch anything, and ask permission before you fart!"

The hem of the white coat swept past Ayou from above, and the severed hand climbed up the trouser leg to Professor Jiang Si's shoulder.

"Disinfect, change your clothes, wear two layers of shoe covers! Tuck all your hair in! If you dare drop even a single ash, I'll implant it into your lung! From now on, every time you cough, you'll be blowing smoke rings!"

"Sounds cool, huh?"

Five minutes later, Stephen Chow, wearing a protective suit, walked into the observation area.

The person on the operating chair had their head down, making it impossible to see their face.

"Who is this?"

"Luke Shaw, mayfly."

Old Zhou was shocked to confirm that the person was indeed Ephemeral. How could a perfectly good young man have been turned into a cyborg?

Professor Jiang Si was completely oblivious to what he was thinking, his expression smug.

"The biomimetic composite skin is heat-resistant, UV-resistant, and can also sense temperature differences and pressure."

"The eye socket contains a multispectral bionic eye that retains the normal visual pattern and adds smoke imaging and near-infrared observation. The optic nerve connection has failed twice, and it is still far from being put into use."

"Look over there, a modular bionic forearm! Interested in getting one?"

"No interest, my shoes are still under warranty."

Professor Jiang Si was a little unhappy after being rejected by Stephen Chow. He thought that his bionic forearm was so good that no one else could replace it!

"All the basal cells of his insect wings died, and the replacement wing membranes cultured by Leonardo da Vinci can only withstand relative wind speeds of less than 37 yards per second, and are currently only suitable for short-distance flight."

Professor Jiang Si illuminated the diagram of the back structure, and two carbon fiber wing bones slowly unfolded on the screen.

"I added bionic wing bones and a posture controller to it, and it can control itself after the nerve signals are connected."

"Where did these hearts and internal organs come from?"

Zhou Xingxing's gaze shifted to the row of incubators, where several hearts contracted as the liquid was delivered through tubing.

There are also liver and lung lobes nearby.

"It was cultured using his own induced basal stem cells! What? You think I bought these from America? These are all spare tissues! Used to sustain life in case the surgery fails."

Why is that eyeball staring at me?

"It is tracking a moving target."

Zhou Xingxing took a step to the left, and the eyeball in the culture medium followed suit.

"The whole house is moving, why is it only chasing me?"

"Because you talk the most nonsense and your mouth moves the most!"

Old Zhou stopped teasing the eyeball and turned to look at Professor Jiang Si.

"Who suggested a full-body makeover?"

"Himself."

Jiang Si took the tablet that Xiao You had brought over and tapped it a few times to show him the electronic signature and fingerprint.

Then another video clip was shown, in which Luke was lying in a hospital bed with his eyes covered and his right arm wrapped in a dressing.

"I know my company won't fire me."

The young man on the screen would say a sentence and then pause for a while.

"Brother Zhou said that even if I can't fly, I'll still have a job, and even if I can't see, I can learn again. I remember all of that."

"Then why did you apply for the modification?" Jiang Si's question came from outside the video recording.

"I never imagined that I would accept this new country so quickly."

"Professor, I'm not afraid of pain, I just want to see this country again."

"I want to do what I can. Even if the modification fails, I'm willing to donate my body for research."

The screen freezes.

"This last one didn't qualify for surgical authorization."

Jiang Si moved the donation application to a separate page, where the status was still "not processed".

Stephen Chow remained silent for a long time before finally shifting his gaze back to the mayfly.

"Was he taking medication at the time?"

"Painkillers do not affect the judgment. There is a seven-day cooling-off period after the application is submitted. He reconfirmed it on the eighth day. I read every risk to him."

Why didn't the forwarding company notify me?

"Mayfly wouldn't let me notify you. Later, Leonardo da Vinci took a copy of the notification, saying he'd be responsible for contacting you after you returned. As for why he didn't contact you... go take apart his electric pressure cooker. I told you that old man couldn't be trusted!"

Stephen Chow's lips moved, but he ultimately didn't try to find a reason for Leonardo da Vinci.

Jiang Si put the tablet back on its stand, and his earlier cursing went away.

"The surgery is divided into six stages. He has just completed the neural interface implantation, and he still needs to maintain drug-induced sleep for another twenty hours."

"The success rate is 23% when the whole process is completed."

"There's one last confirmation." Jiang Si took a microphone and handed it to Zhou Xingxing.

"The neural interface needs a familiar voice to guide it when it is first powered on. He filled in your name. Recording is not acceptable. The person must be present."

Old Zhou looked down at the microphone, momentarily at a loss for what to do.

"I...what did I say?"

Jiang Si closed the control panel cover, and the three rows of indicator lights lit up in sequence.

"Say whatever you want, as long as he's willing to come back with that voice."

Stephen Chow held the microphone to his mouth.

The man who could usually spout nonsense in front of a gun couldn't find a single word that would resonate with Luke's nerve signals.