mother of all races

Anyone with a discerning eye can see that the mercenary with a government background didn't believe Bryce's speculation at all.

"That guy probably watched too many old movies, and always felt that if something went wrong, it was related to space parasites."

Afterwards, Lin Xi once heard Bryce mentioning Sorian's performance in that room behind his back with a mocking tone.

Of course, he didn't comment on that.

Lin Xi didn't know what went wrong, but it was clear that Sorian believed that Lin Xi had something to do with the Ando couple's tragedy.

During the short period of time that followed in that secret room, Lin Xi was a little dazed.

It's like a dream—Lin Xi thought.

Someone is asking, and he is answering.

He obviously said a lot, at least, he was sure that he said almost all the things that should be said.

Including when he went to visit Ando's family, the weird behavior of those two people, the dark cabin and the terrible smell, and the egg case of the star butterfly entrusted to him by Shizuo Ando in violation of regulations...

But when he thought about it later, he found that he couldn't recall what he had said at all.

Well, he has to admit that he really didn't tell the arrogant guy the "all" truth.

that statue...

Sunu's fossil sculpture.

Lin Xi didn't know how to explain it, but ever since she was terrified by that sculpture in the warehouse, Lin Xi always thought it was really weird.

So weird that he didn't even dare to touch it too much.

Liz's horrific death and the last time she saw her obsessed with worshiping the star god sculpture appeared in Lin Xi's mind alternately, making Lin Xi gag and break out in cold sweat.

His intuition was clamoring, or in other words, warning, telling him not to speak out about the sculpture.

He had a hunch that would only make things worse.

The troublesome thing is that Lin Xi has never been a perfect actor, especially in front of a mercenary who seems to be suffering from paranoia.

But Bryce stood firmly on Lin Xi's side, and he almost rolled up his sleeves to fight Sorian.

Naturally, in that atmosphere of mutual distrust and mutual suspicion, this secret investigation would end up falling apart, and just like many meetings after the failure of the leap, there would be no progress.

"I know you must be hiding something, man, I can feel it, now you can maybe hide like a little boy behind your brother's and your brother's girlfriend's skirts and pretend you don't know, but I will catch You got caught, and when we return to Earth, there will be a court-martial waiting for you."

When the four of them left the room in a file, Sorian suddenly quickened his pace and pressed against Lin Xi's back. He put his lips close to Lin Xi's ear and muttered in a vicious tone.

Lin Xi's body froze immediately, and for a second he couldn't make any movements at all, because there was a strange meaning in Sorian's tone that he couldn't explain clearly.

However, Lin Xi didn't have to fight back against Sorian himself, because before he made a move, Bryce had angrily stood between him and Sorian.

"Hey - are you fucking threatening my brother? Under my nose?"

"Ah……"

Facing Bryce, Sorian took a step back.His facial muscles twitched, showing a contemptuous sneer, then he gave Lin Xi the middle finger, turned his head and walked towards the other end of the corridor.

"The son of a bitch."

Blaise stared at his back and cursed coldly.

"...I really don't understand why he always wants to trouble you."

He then said to Lin Xi.

What Lin Xi didn't expect was that Alisa could answer this question.

"I'm afraid it has something to do with John."

she says.

"John? John Bronson?"

"What does it have to do with him?"

Both Lin Xi and Bryce were taken aback and asked in unison.

The elder chef who was sent to the lower cabin (or more precisely, the private prison on the Helios) by Taran due to a mental breakdown not long after the failed transition, and Sorian and What would Lin Xi do?

The same question echoed in the minds of Bryce and Lin Xi.

"It's just a gossip. I heard that John Bronson liked to go to the residential area of ​​those boys before, the exploration team, mercenaries, engineering department... Although the old gentleman is a bit crazy, he is very eloquent. In Before he was locked up, many people believed what he said."

Alisa frowned and explained a few words, with tiredness that could not be concealed on her face.

"I remember that Lin Xi was also at that meeting... Because of Bronson's words, Sorian was even a little reluctant to send his men out to investigate the environment—"

"Oh, I remember."

Lin Xi finally managed to recall the meeting where old John went crazy.

The old man firmly believes that the place where they are now is the as25 planet where 192 people are buried. Sacrifice to the devil...

"But what does that have to do with me?"

Lin Xi asked blankly.

"John Bronson suddenly 'figured it out' not long ago. He kept yelling in the confinement room that you were the 'demon'."

Alisa looked at Lin Xi sympathetically, she lowered her voice and said.

"Sorian often went down to visit John before this, and he probably heard some nonsense there... You don't need to pay too much attention to this."

"Of course I don't care."

Lin Xi said.

After all, compared to an old lunatic Liu and his strange disciples, Lin Xi has far more troubles to face.

Of course, Lin Xi hopes to find some time to discuss some "things" with Bryce and Alyssa, but whether it is the attack of bugs, the opening of the covenant or the terrible death of the Ando couple, Sun There was a complete mess on the Divine Account.

"...we can talk later," Bryce said as he sent Lynch back to his living quarters (and pretended he hadn't seen the red light on the personal terminal emergency call on his wrist), and he stopped at the door. Come down, watching Lin Xi hesitate to speak, but in the end he just patted his brother on the shoulder, "Before this, you need to have a good rest. If I have time, I would like to do a physical examination for you. During this time, it seems Always unconscious in front of me."

He deliberately said in a joking tone, but Lin Xi knew that Bryce was really worried.

He watched Bryce leave in a hurry, and stood there for a long time before pulling himself together and returning to his room.

It was very late, at least, according to the human biological clock.

But when Lin Xi returned to the room, he didn't feel sleepy. His thoughts were chaotic and his body was extremely heavy.

It's just that after seeing the plant culture tank in the room that was used to temporarily house the star butterfly and the remaining unhatched eggs, Lin Xi forgot all about those things.

"Hey, how are you all?"

He immediately rushed to the side of the cultivation tank and carefully observed the star butterfly and other eggs.

Thank goodness they're still alive, even in such crap—

Especially "No. [-]", it has successfully perched on a branch of Sunu fragrant wood.

Its wings are more stretched and more beautiful than when Lin Xi left.

Lin Xi stared fascinatedly at the colorful and beautiful lines on the wings of "No. [-]", and her tense emotions slowly relaxed.

He has never seen such beautiful insect wings. It can be said that the wings of "No. [-]" are completely grown according to his aesthetics.

Even its curly, slender tentacles are particularly endearing.

Obviously it looks somewhat similar to the butterflies on the earth, but Lin Xi can say without hesitation that "No. [-]" is probably more beautiful than the butterflies on the earth combined.

However, at this moment, compared to its size, the branch of fragrant wood in the cultivation tank seems a bit small.

Lin Xi also saw sharply that there was a translucent substance similar to honey in the upper half of the Sunuxiang wood, where the three branches branched.

A faint fragrance emanated from the cultivation tank, and Lin Xi was sure that it was emanating from the translucent secretion.

And "No. [-]" stood quietly on the branch like that. Before Lin Xi approached, it kept waving its wonderful soft yarn-like wings and danced up and down in the cultivation tank.

Lin Xi squinted his eyes and looked for a while before realizing that during the short time he left, the entire culture tank was covered with almost completely transparent thin silk threads—the point where those threads gathered was exactly the place where the Nice smelling aroma on the secretions.

Or to be more precise, those secretions are the thing formed after the filaments condense together.

"What are you doing?"

Lin Xi asked in surprise, one couldn't hold back, and he put his hand on the ventilation hole of the culture tank.

There are a few filaments floating on the edge of the small hole—they are too slender and too soft, so they can float up like a cloud of smoke just by relying on the slight flow of breath formed by the air in the room.

Moreover, the surface of those filaments is sticky.

As soon as Lin Xi's fingers touched the filaments, they melted on his fingertips.What is surprising is that after the disappearance, the fragrance left by the filaments became stronger.

Lin Xi sniffled, and for some reason, he felt that the scent was vaguely familiar.

nest

A strange, invisible thought slowly seeped into Lin Xi's mind along with the fragrance.

Lin Xi recovered from the brief trance, and then he suddenly reacted.

Those filaments—that bit of secretion on the incense wood—are actually Number One making a nest.

Even though they are still so young, they have already started to build nests?

Lin Xi couldn't help thinking, and couldn't help being full of love for Xingdie.

"Zizi-"

Lin Xi was a little dazed, and then he heard a faint sound of insects coming out of the cultivation tank regularly.

"what?

Lin Xi lowered her head, and the scene she saw was exactly the appearance of "No. [-]" trying to stick herself on the ventilation hole.

If the size of "No. [-]" could be smaller, it would have been squeezed out of the hole at this time, but it is a pity that its size can only make it barely poke out a head from the ventilation hole.

And inside the cultivation tank, its wings were tightly drawn together, and then the vocal organs under the wings began to rub and let out insect sounds.

Lin Xi was stunned.

He hesitated for a long time before stretching out his hand cautiously.

Sure enough, the chirping insects became louder in an instant.Lin Xi really hopes that she is not self-indulgent...

But at this moment, that intuition was so strong that he couldn't ignore it at all: he felt that the call of "Number One" was full of attachment and joy.

Lin Xi never thought that she would detect such obvious emotions in the behavior of a bug.

He bit his lip, not realizing that he was subconsciously holding his breath.

His fingers got closer to Number One.

It is absolutely illegal to come into contact with an alien creature without any protective measures. (Even if this little thing was hatched by him himself).

If Lin Xi's mentor knew what he was doing now, he would probably be furious and kick him out of the Earth-Moon Union University directly.

but……

"Whatever—it's not the first time anyway."

Lin Xi muttered.

That's right, it wasn't the first time - as early as when the star butterfly's eggs were taken out of the life support apparatus, he had already had close contact with this alien creature without any protection.

Thinking of this, the burden in Lin Xi's heart suddenly disappeared.

He directly moved his finger close to the position where the tentacles of "No. [-]" could reach.

Sure enough, the tentacles of "No. [-]" reached up immediately.The transparent and slender tentacles are quite vivid to the touch.

Slightly cold, and it feels very tough.

"Number One" entangled Lin Xi's finger with the end of the tentacles without hesitation.

The scene of deja vu made Lin Xi raise her eyebrows.

"You really like to pester people."

He said to "Number One", with an imperceptible soft smile in his tone.

The wings of "Number One" opened, and the colors of those spots became more magnificent, as if it could really understand Lin Xi's praise.

It's just that seeing "No. [-]" began to drill out of the cultivation tank more actively, Lin Xi settled down to lift the cover of the cultivation tank after a short period of affection, and then pinched Xingdie's body with her hands, carefully Throw it back to the bottom of the tank.

"Number One" was lying on the bottom of the cultivation tank blankly, some nesting filaments stuck to its wings, it had to use its forelimbs to hook for a long time to clean those filaments from the wings clean.

At this time, it showed a little bit of exasperation.

When Lin Xi put his finger on the ventilation hole again in an attempt to communicate with it again, it flapped its wings and flew to the corner farthest from Lin Xi.

Lin Xi watched it lying on the side of the cultivation tank for a long time, and was almost shocked by the abundant and rich body language of such a bug.

"Huh, what a hassle..."

Seeing that "No. [-]" had stayed in that corner for a long time without moving, Lin Xi also breathed a sigh of relief and stood up from the training tank.

It's a good thing that Xingdie is so "lively", but Lin Xi still feels distressed looking at the cultivation tank that was originally suitable for plants.

After all, once you think of the training tank, you must think of Shizuo Ando—and the difficult reality he has to face now.

death.

insect.

Thorian's inexplicable hostility.

And the most troublesome thing... a cultivation device suitable for Star Butterfly.

Maybe he should visit Shizuo Ando.

Lin Xi managed to use a metal mesh to block the ventilation holes of the cultivation tank to prevent the star butterfly from escaping, and then began to deal with her daily chores.

During this process, Lin Xi's thoughts remained on Shizuo Ando.

From the information revealed by Sorian before, Lin Xi knew that Shizuo Ando's spirit was in a state of madness.In order to prevent him from doing dangerous things, he was sedated and detained directly in the confinement room.

Although according to Bryce, it may be difficult for Shizuo Ando to regain his sanity in a short period of time, but... Maybe he should try?However, with Sorian's character, it might be difficult for him to accept letting Lin Xi get close to the confinement room.

Oh, by the way, speaking of which, there is another John Bronson in the brig.

To be honest, Lin Xi really wanted to find the old man in person and ask himself how the so-called "devil" title came to be on his head.

In the midst of many thoughts, Lin Xi unbuttoned his overalls while thinking about those headaches.

However, the moment he took off all his clothes, he actually felt a burst of sight...

"Ok?"

Lin Xi suddenly turned her head, only to realize that the line of sight came from "Number One".

The worm had already relaxed its wings at some point, and it was now clinging tightly to the transparent inner wall of the cultivation tank, its red eyes fixed in place motionless.

From a human point of view, it really seemed to be staring straight at Lin Xi.

Lin Xi looked back at "No. [-]" amusedly. He didn't know that a bug's eyes could have such penetrating power.

"You are not angry anymore?"

He asked subconsciously, and to be honest, he didn't expect "Number One" to respond to him.

But something amazing happened.

"Number One" seemed to be reminded by Lin Xi of the slight conflict between the two of them before.

Its tentacles wobbled, and then it flapped its wings very unpleasantly, then turned and returned to the back of the sunu incense stick.

"Wow."

Lin Xi let out a surprised murmur.

"You look... almost as if you can really understand what I say."

He said.

……

"Of course it understands what you say."

The next day, in the original Shizuo Ando's laboratory, the assistant who had dealt with Lin Xi before raised his voice and said to Lin Xi in an incredible way.

His name was Ernie (forgive Lynch, it took him a while to remember the young assistant's name), he looked tired, and the original "assistant" had been replaced by Replaced by the title of "Animal Laboratory·Acting Supervisor".

When Ernie had to hang out on the Helios to save his grade point because of a screwed-up final exam, it never occurred to him that one day, a dawdling student like himself would have the opportunity to control an entire lab room. room—and he was sure now that it wasn't a good feeling.

Of course, Lin Xi could also see O'Neill's exhaustion. It is said that yesterday's bug attack made the already abnormal animals in the laboratory even more restless, which must have made the youngest laboratory director in history busy. It's choking.If possible, Lin Xi didn't want to cause trouble for this unlucky guy at this time - but the reality didn't give him too many choices.

Xingdie's daily life and food are big problems, and Lin Xi has to seek professional help.

And when he inadvertently mentioned the behavior of "No. [-]" to O'Neill yesterday, O'Neill pointed it out directly——according to Sunu Xingdie's IQ, all the interactions between it and Lin Xi yesterday were all It's done consciously.

"Dr. Lin Xi, have you forgotten? Those bugs on the Sunu planet are only similar in appearance to those on Earth. Their IQs are frighteningly high. Some types of bugs are almost as mentally similar to five or six-year-olds." Human children are almost the same. Okay.” O’Neill paused, then looked at Lin Xi full of doubts, “I thought everyone on the Helios should know this. Have you seen it? How those Sunu people domesticated those bugs..."

Lin Xi's face was slightly hot.

Well, of course he knew that the bugs on Sunu planet were different—there were many kinds of bugs on Sunu planet, and many of them were even huge in size.

In the lives of the Sunu people, bugs can be means of transportation, partners in production, food, or raw materials for goods and medicines...

And there are many people who even keep certain bugs as pets.

"Sorry, I also know that Sunu bugs are different from the earth... But I stayed on the boat when Sunu was moored, and I still haven't realized it yet."

Lin Xi said with some embarrassment.