America: The Cremator

Sulong handed two sterile, sealed bags containing pills to Stella.

Stella took it, turned around and walked to the lab bench, put on a pair of thin latex gloves, and carefully picked out a pill with a pair of long-handled tweezers, placing it in a petri dish.

Then, she gently applied force with the other end of the tweezers and crushed a small corner of the pill.

White powder fell in a soft patter.

She swept the debris into a clean test tube and added an appropriate amount of sterile water.

"It needs to dissolve for a while." Stella inserted the test tube into the centrifuge slot and set the parameters. "Captain Elena, if you have something else to do, you can go ahead and take care of it."

"I will let you know once the research results are available."

Elena glanced at her watch and nodded. She did indeed have a lot of follow-up reports to process regarding the Dream Drug.

Seeing this, Su Long also prepared to leave with her.

"Mr. Suron," Stella's voice came from behind, "I need an assistant right now. Could you stay and help me?"

Upon hearing this, Su Long stopped and turned to look at those beautiful eyes that were filled with inquiry, a smile playing on his lips.

"Of course, it would be my honor."

Elena glanced at the two of them, said nothing, and simply opened the laboratory door and turned to leave.

The heavy metal door closed slowly behind me with a dull "click".

Surong walked up to Stella: "Professor, let's begin."

Stella did not immediately return to the lab table. Instead, she crossed her arms, tilted her head, and looked at Su Long with great interest.

"Su Long, I feel like... you've become a lot more handsome since the last time we met."

Her gaze slowly moved upwards, landing on Su Long's short hair that was close to his scalp, and her brows furrowed slightly.

"But your shit-yellow buzz cut has successfully brought your looks back."

Su Long helplessly touched the back of his head, feeling the prickly texture: "It's necessary for the mission, and I'm also very reluctant to part with my beautiful hair."

"Never mind," Stella waved her hand, "Why don't you make me a cup of coffee first? I've been working on this all night, and I'm really sleepy now."

"OK."

Su Long walked to the coffee counter in the corner.

Stella followed, took off her gloves to reveal a pair of slender, fair fingers, and skillfully operated the precision electronic scale to measure the weight of the coffee beans.

She then poured the coffee beans into the grinder, and with the crisp grinding sound, a rich aroma began to fill the air.

Su Long then helped her arrange the filter cups and filter paper, and clean the countertop, their movements perfectly coordinated.

Stella lifted the pouring kettle, her slender wrist steadily controlling the water flow, pouring hot water in circles.

Soon, the first cup of coffee was brewed.

Su Longzheng bent down to take a cup from the cupboard, and at the same time praised, "Professor Stella, your coffee-making skills are much better than your steak-making skills... I'll have a cup too."

Just as Su Long lowered his head, Stella's gaze inadvertently swept across his neck, and she suddenly paused.

There was a red mark there, clearly from a kiss and sucking.

"You didn't even wear protective gear today." Stella's voice suddenly became flat, revealing no emotion.

Su Long placed the cup under the drip filter holder and casually replied, "I dealt with the new killer butterfly early yesterday morning, so I can relax a bit today."

Stella's gaze fell on the very conspicuous red mark on the left side of his neck: "Then you should have worn a turtleneck sweater before going out."

She paused, then said in a calm, factual tone, "Creating a suction mark at the carotid sinus can potentially lead to a cerebral thrombosis, and in severe cases... it can be fatal."

"Next time, have your female companion choose a safer spot."

Su Long was taken aback upon hearing this, and subconsciously reached out to touch his neck.

He remembered that this was the "spoils of war" that Hannah had deliberately left behind in the dance hall room yesterday to make her disguise more convincing.

Stella didn't look at him again, made the second cup of coffee, and handed it to him.

"This is yours."

After saying that, she picked up her glass, turned around, and walked towards the experimental area: "Let's begin once you've finished drinking."

Su Long looked at the coffee in his cup, which was now a much darker color, and took a big gulp.

An indescribable bitter taste exploded in his mouth instantly. Su Long's face contorted from the irritation of the taste. He turned to look at Stella's slender back and sighed inwardly.

This woman is definitely doing this on purpose.

He finished the cup of coffee as if it were Chinese medicine, and walked over to Stella.

At this moment, the centrifuge had stopped running, and Stella was observing the clear solution in the test tube.

"It's mostly melted, but some impurities have settled at the bottom."

"Let's conduct a spiritual experiment first," she said, looking up and gesturing to a locker in the distance. "Go and get the holy water from the locker."

Su Long opened the cabinet door and found the familiar glass jar. Only a thin layer of liquid remained in the jar, and it was almost empty.

"Professor, you don't have much holy water left."

Stella replied without looking up, "I've already arranged for my assistant to buy them; there should be enough for at least this experiment."

After saying that, she divided the dissolved medicine solution into two equal portions, and then dripped holy water into one portion of the solution.

The liquid in the test tube only swayed slightly, and apart from that, no bubbles, discoloration, or sedimentation occurred; it was as calm as a glass of water.

"What are we doing now?" Su Long asked.

"A two-way spiritual test," Stella explained. "Observe the reaction of the solution with both holy water and black mud. If it reacts with the holy water in a depleting way and with the black mud in a proliferative way, then it proves that it contains a strange spiritual power."

She shook her head and set the unresponsive test tube aside.

"It seems the positive response test has failed; let's try the reverse."

She took the other half of the solution and went to the three glass storage tanks side by side in the corner of the laboratory.

She opened the valve on top of one of the storage tanks and slowly poured the solution from the test tube into it.

The black mud at the bottom of the storage tank only lazily bubbled a few times before quickly returning to stillness.

Looking at the faint reaction, Su Long asked uncertainly, "This... doesn't seem like it's a success?"

"Yes," Stella said with some disappointment, "Even if you spit in it, the mud will react this way."

After a moment's thought, Su Long offered a conjecture: "Could it be that you didn't crush enough of the core components?"

"You only provided two samples, so of course I have to be conservative in using them," Stella said, nodding. "But let's assume you're right. Before conducting any destructive experiments, let's examine the internal structure of these pills."

She picked up another intact pill from the petri dish and led Suron to another corner of the laboratory.

Here sits a sophisticated X12 miniature X-ray machine.

Stella skillfully adjusted the instrument and placed the pill into the sample chamber.

With a slight mechanical whirring sound, the pills were fed into the machine.

A few seconds later, a clear image of the pill was projected onto the 12-inch high-definition industrial touch screen next to it.

The tablet itself has a light gray, semi-transparent, uniform matrix.

However, within this uniform matrix, there were clumps of shadows with blurred boundaries, but with a density significantly higher than the surrounding powder.

These shadows are whitish and bright, with somewhat rough edges, not smooth, unlike the sharp outlines of metal shavings.

When multiple shadows gather together, they can form a small cluster of cloud-like bright spots.

Stella stretched out her finger and zoomed in on the image on the touchscreen.

As the details became clearer, they saw that some of the circular shadows contained subtle dividing lines.

Some even reveal a more intricate tiny dot inside.

Stella's brow furrowed deeper as she stared intently at the bizarre structures on the screen, her breathing becoming rapid.

"These are... insect eggs, right?"