EDEH Chapter 52

With a “click,” Huo Yanji pulled down the gun’s safety.

 

Sang Jue’s chin was pushed even higher—a perfect height for kissing, but he wouldn’t get a kiss, at most a bullet.

 

Yet Sang Jue’s eyes still showed no panic, no fear, only unwavering calm.

 

In that instant, Huo Yanji thought expressionlessly: Fire a shot.

 

Aim at a non-fatal spot—arm, shoulder, leg, anywhere. Make him feel pain, make him remember this lesson, make him never trust anyone in the apocalypse, never look at anyone with such pure, focused eyes.

 

The specially-made leather glove wrapped around his slender thumb, hooking the trigger.

 

Huo Yanji’s eyes were pitch black. Sang Jue slowly blinked, having the illusion that Huo Yanji really would shoot him.

 

He lightly pursed his lips, neither speaking nor showing any intention to dodge. His handcuffed right hand even obediently rested on the sofa armrest, secretly hooking Huo Yanji’s clothes.

 

“Bang—!”

 

Sang Jue instinctively closed his eyes but felt no pain.

 

He opened his eyes. Huo Yanji was watching him, his arm raised to the side, gun barrel pointing toward Shan Hongcheng, smoke rising in the dim light.

 

“Ah!!” Shan Hongcheng screamed in pain.

 

The bullet precisely hit where the thenar eminence met the thumb. Flesh and blood were mangled, but the remote beside it wasn’t damaged at all.

 

Shan Hongcheng instinctively wanted to press the red button, but under the piercing pain, he was horrified to discover he couldn’t control his thumb—couldn’t bend it or fully straighten it.

 

His tendons and nerves had been penetrated by the bullet. After a moment of stiffness, blood poured from the wound, flowing down. Some dripped to the floor, some flowed into his sleeve.

 

Under such intense pain, Shan Hongcheng still hadn’t released the remote—not for any other reason, but because fungal threads had firmly bound his fingers, making movement impossible.

 

—Sang Jue’s and Colin’s slime had arrived simultaneously. Sang Jue had even taken the opportunity to drink some blood on the side.

 

The nearest supervisor strode forward, snatching the remote: “Shan Hongcheng, you’re suspected of illegal profiteering, leading underground criminal organizations, seriously endangering public security, and murdering residents. As a caught-in-the-act criminal, you are under emergency arrest.”

 

“Always acting spoiled.” Huo Yanji pulled his clothes free, saying flatly: “But you got it right—your reward is having your other hand cuffed too.”

 

The extended slime threads instantly receded like a tide. Sang Jue obediently withdrew his left hand, which had returned to normal, and asked: “What did I get right?”

 

Colin, who had simultaneously withdrawn his fungal web, touched his hand. The slime he’d extended seemed to have been touched by something, creating a strange resonance throughout his body.

 

He strode forward, lifting Shan Hongcheng’s blood-soaked left hand to examine it carefully… strange, there was nothing there.

 

“General, we found a hidden room over here!!”

 

Huo Yanji didn’t answer Sang Jue’s question, his gaze returning to its usual calm indifference.

 

The empty end of the handcuffs clicked around Sang Jue’s other wrist with a “snap.” Huo Yanji looped the key ring around Sang Jue’s pinky finger: “Play by yourself for a while.”

 

“Oh.”

 

Huo Yanji led the way into the hidden room, having someone drag Shan Hongcheng in as well.

 

Colin said: “Everyone spread out and search. Don’t miss any suspicious clues!”

 

“Yes!”

 

After all, they weren’t here purely to arrest Shan Hongcheng. Shan Hongcheng was just cannon fodder—the real mastermind still needed investigation. Besides that, there was the matter of the three thousand person list. From Shan Hongcheng’s reaction just now, he was clearly in the know.

 

Heart-wrenching screams soon came from the hidden room, even the thick walls couldn’t block them.

 

Colin walked over to Sang Jue: “Want me to help you unlock the handcuffs?”

 

Sang Jue looked down, playing with the key as he tried to insert it into the lock himself: “No need.”

 

Colin sighed. He’d been thinking it would be better if Sang Jue stayed as far from the general as possible, but he still couldn’t bear to see this.

 

From his youth until now, Huo Yanji had given everything for humanity’s reconstruction and protecting order. He’d always walked alone on the cliff’s edge—no one had ever truly stood by his side.

 

Colin said: “Don’t be scared by the general. He wouldn’t really shoot you.”

 

Sang Jue looked up: “I wasn’t scared.”

 

Colin sighed in relief: “That’s good. I was worried you were heartbroken.”

 

Sang Jue knew Huo Yanji wouldn’t shoot him. Huo Yanji’s killing intent was strong, but it wasn’t directed at him.

 

Though he still didn’t know what heartbreak felt like, Sang Jue was somewhat happy now.

 

He suddenly realized what Huo Yanji’s “correct answer” meant.

 

[You can’t bear to.]

 

[Correct.]

 

Sang Jue’s lips curved slightly upward. He decided to give Huo Yanji a shallow five thousand friend points, making it -15,000 now.

 

If he couldn’t bear to kill him, then when he returned home and found the house wrecked, he probably couldn’t bear to punish him either.

 

The key successfully entered the lock with a click, and the handcuffs opened.

 

Colin was about to say something when he saw Sang Jue consciously handcuff himself again.

 

“…” He laughed helplessly: “Are you addicted to role-playing?”

 

Sang Jue looked puzzled: “What’s role-playing?”

 

Colin said casually: “It’s a kind of little fun, like supervisor and prisoner, doctor and patient, master and pet.”

 

Sang Jue’s eyes lit up: “Then can I make Ji Ji play my pet?”

 

Though he’d agreed not to call him Ji Ji in front of others, Colin had heard this nickname before, so it didn’t matter.

 

Colin choked: “If the general agrees… you don’t need to tell me.”

 

He was really afraid of knowing too much about the general’s private affairs—he might die without knowing how someday.

 

In the hidden room, Huo Yanji was interrogating Shan Hongcheng. A wall didn’t block Sang Jue’s hearing.

 

The dying Shan Hongcheng still gritted his teeth, refusing to reveal a single word.

 

Huo Yanji looked at him calmly, in no hurry: “How could you naively think that the future they promised you would definitely come true?”

 

“Even if ordinary people no longer existed on this land in the future, and ‘evolved’ deviants became the norm, there would still be distinctions between high-level and low-level deviants. There would still be people stepping on your heads, looking down on you with disdain.”

 

Shan Hongcheng’s body, collapsed on the ground, trembled, but he still bit his teeth tight, saying nothing.

 

Huo Yanji examined this hidden room, saying offhandedly: “What created the current situation wasn’t those ordinary people who discriminate against you, but those who bewitched you from behind. They created identity division—first bewitching you to ‘evolve,’ now bewitching you to resist class. But do you truly understand their real purpose?”

 

“Cough cough…” Shan Hongcheng spat out a trace of bloody phlegm. “Worthy of being the highest executive officer, always standing on the ordinary people’s side. Do we deserve everything we suffer today!?”

 

“You hide behind high walls, living like parasites, enjoying the resources we risk our lives for outside, while treating us like sewer rats. Why?”

 

Huo Yanji walked to a row of bookshelves. He reached up and pulled them open—behind was another small hidden room less than one square meter.

 

The small room contained only a whiteboard wall covered in writing, connected by countless red lines as dense as spider webs. At their center was just one photograph.

 

In the photo, Huo Yanji wore a neat, solemn military uniform, turning back with a cold glance.

 

The entire whiteboard wall was prepared for Huo Yanji—all assassination plans for him.

 

Not just this highway explosion, but several major and minor sniper attempts from previous years, though none had made much impact.

 

These scrawled handwriting looked like sharp knives.

 

Huo Yanji turned back, walked to Shan Hongcheng, and looked down at him, a barely perceptible trace of pity flashing in his eyes.

 

“No one deserves anything, but who made us all chess pieces.” Huo Yanji said lightly, “Everything you’re helping them do now is aiding the tyrant. Your so-called resistance is just your own self-gratification.”

 

“This will only cause more people to fall into your current situation in the future. And you still have a chance to prevent tragedy from happening.”

 

The surrounding supervisors searched through boxes and cabinets, not missing any detail. Shan Hongcheng could only lie powerlessly on the ground, his violently heaving chest like a dying beast’s final gasps.

 

He couldn’t listen to the advice, unwilling to distinguish truth from falsehood, immersed in imagined beautiful worlds.

 

A supervisor reported: “General, we found a list!”

 

Huo Yanji took it and glanced at it. This list overlapped with the governor’s three thousand person list, but had more people and more details.

 

Over seventy thousand people total, each one a resident who had ‘failed genetic testing and thus couldn’t become a deviant.’

 

Among them were ordinary people and supervisors, densely packed names seeming to merge into one entity, like ancient incantations summoning demons, with the lives these names represented being the living sacrifices.

 

Huo Yanji expressionlessly stroked his throat, feeling a moment of nausea.

 

Some names on the list already had red checkmarks—most likely representing those who had already been captured.

 

“Let me sort this out—” Huo Yanji’s brow and eyes were covered with a layer of icy frost. “Kidnapping these residents who failed genetic testing is just one link in your chain. The mastermind gives you the list, you handle kidnapping people in the city, then transport them to rebel organizations outside the city. The mastermind has also made deals with the rebel organizations—they handle transportation outside the city.”

 

Shan Hongcheng struggled to lift his head: “You don’t need to waste your effort… I won’t say a single word.”

 

Huo Yanji looked at him unmoved: “And these people who failed genetic testing have a higher chance of fusing with wild contamination genes. Someone wants to create more powerful deviants… So why not in the city, not in better-equipped research institutes for gene fusion?”

 

“Stop talking nonsense, I don’t understand a single word—”

 

Huo Yanji didn’t miss the trace of panic in Shan Hongcheng’s eyes, slowly outlining the complete conspiracy.

 

He bent down, shoving the gun barrel into Shan Hongcheng’s mouth, also blocking his attempts to argue.

 

“Because outside the city there’s a condition that can’t be achieved inside. The mastermind doesn’t want ordinary deviants—they want to send these ‘failed genetic testing’ people eight thousand meters underground into the rifts, trying to create more like Huo Feng—

 

Right?”

 

Shan Hongcheng’s eyes were full of shock. He tried to say something, but with the gun barrel blocking his mouth, he could only make muffled sounds, unintelligible.

 

Huo Yanji moved the gun away, gently wiping it with a handkerchief.

 

Shan Hongcheng said viciously: “So what if it is!? A bunch of ordinary people who can’t evolve are just a bunch of waste! Even if only one General Huo Feng emerges from among them, it’s still a profit!!”

 

These words struck like thunder, exploding in everyone’s ears.

 

The supervisors around them stopped their actions, showing expressions of shock.

 

Many of them were people who had failed genetic testing, couldn’t become deviants, and settled for becoming supervisors instead.

 

If they carefully looked through this list of over seventy thousand people, they might find their own names.

 

And now someone was saying that high-level officials didn’t consider their lives as lives, willing to sacrifice seventy thousand lives to recreate a few combat weapons as powerful as Huo Feng.

 

These seventy thousand were just the total number of those who ‘failed genetic testing’ in the main city—there were twenty-six other safe zones.

 

Not only the supervisors in the hidden room heard clearly, but also Colin, who had discovered clues and was preparing to report.

 

After becoming a deviant, all his senses had improved.

 

Colin stood frozen in place, unsure whether he should knock on the door.

 

Everyone hadn’t figured it out yet, not understanding the connection between General Huo Feng’s strength and the bottom of the rifts. Why would sending these people on the list underground possibly produce strong individuals like General Huo Feng?

 

A supervisor couldn’t help asking: “General… what does this mean?”

 

Huo Yanji’s tone was flat, as if making casual conversation, revealing the secret he had previously told Sang Jue.

 

“Huo Feng wasn’t the first person to receive the ‘genetic evolution plan.’ Like these people on the list, he failed genetic testing. Becoming a deviant was just an accident.”

 

When the underground city survivors returned to the surface, facing the harsh surface environment, they remembered the recording Dr. Luce had transmitted from eight thousand meters underground in the rift.

 

The Court didn’t heed Dr. Luce’s warnings, but decided to send people to the eight thousand meter underground rift again, to understand the source of contamination.

 

A team of 138 people, led by Huo Feng, but only Huo Feng returned.

 

No one knew what he encountered underground, but Huo Feng, who had failed genetic testing, became a powerful deviant.

 

The rest was easy to understand. To make more people willing to become deviants and fight against contamination monsters, Huo Feng was crafted into the image of a pioneer and hero. They claimed he was the first to accept ‘evolution,’ making countless people believe in him, rushing forward one after another, like moths to flame, hoping to become heroes like Huo Feng.

 

But in reality?

 

Fusing with processed contamination genes could never make someone as powerful as Huo Feng—not even one percent as strong.

 

After hearing the true history, the hidden room fell silent for a long time.

 

Shan Hongcheng coughed, letting out a low chuckle: “I know their purpose is different from mine. I’m selfish—I just want to trample ordinary people underfoot! While they’re trying to continue some bullshit human civilization… So what? As long as there are enough deviants, strong enough that even thermal weapons can’t easily kill them, no one can despise us.”

 

“We’re not the aliens, not the monsters—you are.”

 

“All creatures are evolving, but you cling to ridiculous human bloodlines and refuse to change… How pitiful.”

 

Shan Hongcheng became more excited as he spoke, as if everything he said was truth and fact, looking at Huo Yanji with deep pity.

 

Huo Yanji’s emotions showed no fluctuation, but he remained silent for a long time.

 

After a while, he said: “You have one last chance to reveal the masterminds.”

 

Shan Hongcheng burst into laughter, blood from his mouth staining his clothes: “You know it’s not just one person! Do you think you can fight everyone alone!? You’re dreaming! Their plan will definitely succeed!!

 

And you will be trampled underfoot by the deviants you look down on in the near future! Drowned by everyone’s spit hahaha…”

 

Huo Yanji didn’t care about his anger and mockery. He glanced at the hidden room entrance and said flatly: “Come in.”

 

Colin, caught between entering and retreating, took a breath and pushed the door open.

 

He hesitated: “General, so other high-level officials actually want to eliminate you? Because you would definitely stop their plan…”

 

Huo Yanji: “What, judging by your tone, you think I shouldn’t stop it?”

 

Colin quickly cleared his innocence: “You know I’ve always preferred action over thinking!”

 

He was still confused, seeming to understand but not really understanding.

 

“It’s still unclear what’s down in the rifts. Sending tens of thousands of people down there—maybe a few like Huo Feng will emerge, or maybe they’ll all be annihilated, with none coming back up.”

 

Huo Yanji’s tone was indifferent, stating facts: “From the beginning, they were planned as expendable sacrifices.”

 

Colin fell silent for a moment. He remembered he was also on the list.

 

If he hadn’t suddenly become a deviant, he might have already gone missing by now, becoming one of the sacrificial victims.

 

Shan Hongcheng on the ground was still laughing maniacally, as if he could already see a future where deviants seized sovereignty.

 

He suddenly changed his mind and struggled to squeeze out a sentence: “I can tell you the name of one of the masterminds—you might have guessed it already. Commander Huo Jiangmin, who suddenly left the safe zone to guard Rift No. 2—”

 

“The one who wants you dead is him.”

 

Colin’s face changed slightly: “General, he might just be talking nonsense, trying to drive a wedge between you and the commander…”

 

Huo Yanji asked flatly: “What relationship do I have with Huo Jiangmin?”

 

Colin paused.

 

That’s right. In everyone’s eyes, even Colin vaguely felt that Huo Yanji and Huo Jiangmin had a bad relationship with deep conflicts.

 

Although these two had never had any substantial conflict, the view of their discord grew like weeds in the wasteland, deeply rooted in everyone’s hearts.

 

Perhaps everyone had always believed that supervisors and deviants were opposed.

 

And the highest-ranking supervisor and the highest-ranking deviant were naturally opposed.

 

Clearly they were all human, clearly the birth of supervisors and deviants was originally to emerge from the long night toward dawn.

 

What had brought them to this current situation?

 

At the doorway of the hidden room, Sang Jue suddenly poked his head out, his hands still obediently cuffed as he gripped the door.

 

Huo Yanji looked over: “Hungry?”

 

Sang Jue: “…”

 

In Huo Yanji’s eyes, was all he could do eat! Hateful.

 

Though he was indeed a bit hungry.

 

Sang Jue secretly made a note and said: “Can your communicator still work?”

 

Huo Yanji paused. He pressed his communicator and found it was in a no-signal state.

 

The others were the same. Colin immediately ordered the supervisors outside: “There’s signal jamming equipment within a hundred meters! Find it!”

 

Sang Jue had discovered this when he tried calling 007 earlier. He called for a long time but 007 didn’t respond at all.

 

Shan Hongcheng on the ground showed a strange smile and whispered three words: “You’re finished.”

 

Huo Yanji’s eyes instantly darkened, understanding everything within two seconds.

 

“No need to search, go up directly.”

 

“Yes!”

 

Ten minutes later, they returned to the lower district surface, stopping at the stairs leading to the middle district.

 

They stood in the shadows, while on the upper half of the stairs bathed in sunlight stood a group of supervisors dressed identically to them, led by the former highest executive officer—Old Herman.

 

Huo Yanji wasn’t surprised.

 

He should have died in the highway explosion some time ago, but he survived.

 

So the masterminds behind the scenes made a temporary plan. Everything that happened these past two days—Yu Ren’s death, Sang Jue’s first work assignment being to organize Yu Ren’s belongings, discovering the sticky notes, surveillance videos, etc…

 

Everything was to lure him to the underground boxing ring, let Shan Hongcheng delay time, prevent him from receiving notifications from subordinates, discovering the signal jamming, and reacting—

 

Then frame him.

 

“General Huo Yanji, you are suspended pending investigation for suspected hatred and torture-killing of hundreds of deviants. Please come with us.”

 

Old Herman’s back was hunched, but his voice was calm and powerful. He took out a stack of documents, looking down: “This is evidence found in your office.”

 

**

 

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