The third group of vaccines did not emerge as scheduled, but the team felt only a minor pang of disappointment. In truth, the fact that Jiang Cheng and Jiang Langmin had been able to produce the second group of mutations so smoothly was already beyond everyone’s expectations. Time was incredibly tight, and they lacked detailed data on Gaimore. Jiang Cheng had designed the entire development process based solely on gene sequence fragments researched by others a year ago; from any perspective, it was an astonishing feat.
Furthermore, there were no issues with the second group of mutations. Jiang Cheng had produced a sufficient quantity to keep Guo Junyi’s condition under control for the short term. Even if the third group didn't succeed immediately, the pressure of time had been significantly alleviated.
Everyone remained calm regarding the vaccine progress, including Guo Junyi himself, who was still confined to his bed. As his fever broke, he felt much more comfortable, and the various indescribable pains in his body had subsided. He had the audacity to comfort Jiang Langmin, saying, "Every day I live now is a bonus. There’s no need to be so tense."
Jiang Langmin wasn't actually that tense, but he accepted the comfort nonetheless. The only one feeling truly dejected was Lu Linjiang—after all, the person coming to the CDC wasn't Jiang Cheng.
After returning home, Lu Linjiang rummaged through his things and finally found a key in the corner of a drawer. It was a spare key Jiang Cheng had made for his own apartment downstairs years ago, though Lu Linjiang had never used it back then. Jiang Cheng hadn't returned in all these years, and Lu Linjiang hadn't stepped foot inside either; he had no idea what state the place was in.
Lu Linjiang opened the door in the middle of the night. Although the windows and doors had been tightly shut, years of neglect had left a thick layer of dust, and the wallpaper had yellowed. Lu Linjiang took note of everything. The next day, he contacted a cleaning service and an interior design firm, preparing to renovate the apartment.
He had originally intended to ask Jiang Cheng today what color the new wallpaper should be, but the moment he saw Jiang Langmin walking out with his equipment case, he knew that plan had gone up in smoke.
Mobile phones weren't allowed inside the laboratory, and all external communication relied on specialized communicators that Lu Linjiang naturally couldn't access. To redesign the experimental steps for the third mutation, Jiang Cheng spent his entire day buried in the lab. Lu Linjiang found himself in a predicament; he realized he had no idea what Jiang Cheng’s preferences were. He had hoped to use this as a way to make a fresh start, but reality had proven to be quite harsh.
Fortunately, he wasn't slow-witted. He turned to the designer’s catalog and flipped through the pages until he finally found a shade in the color palette that closely matched the chestnut sweater Jiang Cheng often wore. Once everything was settled, Lu Linjiang changed his mind—he decided to simply give Jiang Cheng a surprise.
Since the failure of the third mutation, Jiang Cheng had gone into total seclusion. Initially, Jiang Langmin would deliver the second mutation samples, but later, even Jiang Langmin vanished from sight. They simply had someone from the CDC make a daily trip to Micro-University to pick them up.
Unable to find his target, Lu Linjiang focused all his energy on the apartment. Since the place was right downstairs, it became his new habit to stop by Jiang Cheng’s apartment after work for a look before heading up to his own.
Jiang Cheng had lived under the same roof as him for four years. It was only after Jiang Cheng left that Lu Linjiang realized that while a whole person was gone, almost nothing else was missing from his home. He had originally assumed Jiang Cheng had moved his personal belongings to this apartment long ago, but taking the opportunity of the renovation to look around, he found that there was almost nothing here either.
The furniture was mostly empty. The only thing filled to capacity was the massive bookshelf in the study. It seemed to be custom-made, stretching from floor to ceiling and wrapping around the room. It was packed almost to the brim. A few years ago, a man like Lu Linjiang—who hated flipping through books unless it was for an exam—wouldn't have even set foot in there.
But things were different now. Since he couldn't see the man, he had to hunt for clues in private. The shelves were filled with heavy tomes related to Jiang Cheng’s profession and a row of academic journals, all sporting solemn and steady covers. However, one section near the desk stood out like a sore thumb, its style completely different. Lu Linjiang opened one and found a collection of over a dozen cookbooks.
Lu Linjiang flipped through them with a complicated heart. He no longer believed that Jiang Cheng’s culinary skills were innate. Before he could dwell on it, he made an even more startling discovery. In the shelf directly above the cookbooks, sandwiched between a pile of bioengineering textbooks, were about a dozen books on criminal investigation. Lu Linjiang pulled a few out at random; sure enough, they bore signs of having been read.
Lu Linjiang stared at those books for a long time, realizing more profoundly than ever that in that so-called marriage, neither of them had found it easy.
When Jiang Cheng finally reappeared, everyone was crowded outside the isolation ward, watching him set up an IV drip for Guo Junyi. The blisters on Guo Junyi’s body had shrunk considerably, and he finally looked somewhat human again. Jiang Cheng performed an examination; although the hemorrhaging spots in the eyelids hadn't fully vanished, he was significantly better than before.
"Can I be released after this bottle?" Guo Junyi asked.
"I'm afraid not. Although the experimental data shows no issues, you are, after all, the first human subject."
Guo Junyi watched the liquid dripping at a steady rate and added, "So you can't let me off the hook so easily?"
Jiang Cheng chuckled. "More than just not letting you off the hook—if necessary, we might even have to take biopsies."
Looking at the dark mass of people outside, Guo Junyi suddenly felt a sting in his nose. He blinked rapidly to hide it and joked, "Remember, you have to put my name on the research paper."
Jiang Cheng lowered the bed. "Definitely. Right now, you are the most important person in the world to me. You must get well. I’m waiting for us to reach the pinnacle of life together."
Guo Junyi had been living with a sense of unreality. He had long since secretly written his will. Even though Jiang Cheng and Jiang Langmin were working themselves to the bone in the lab to develop a vaccine, his expectations for them had never gone beyond making his passing less painful. No matter how much of a layman he was regarding vaccine R&D, he knew it wasn't something that could be achieved overnight.
Yet reality was more surreal than a dream. Ren Lifei picked an auspicious day to disinfect the entire isolation ward, and after Guo Junyi was sprayed down several times with disinfectant, he was transferred to a general ward.
He still had some marks left behind by the receding blisters, which looked a bit gruesome up close—anyone with trypophobia would certainly struggle—but no one cared about that. The path from the isolation ward to the general ward was packed with people. Whether they knew him or not, everyone wanted to see the man who had miraculously returned from the brink of death.
Wearing a mask, Guo Junyi was pushed into the general ward in a daze. Most of the Forensics Department had shown up. Even facing these familiar faces, he still found himself doubting whether he had truly escaped death. Over a month of isolation had made the outside world feel foreign; when he was alone after the clamor died down, he still couldn't distinguish between dream and reality.
Lu Linjiang had known Guo Junyi for so long, yet he had never seen such a vacant expression on his face. He waved a hand in front of Guo Junyi’s eyes before asking Jiang Cheng half-heartedly, "Did he go stupid?"
The others had already been chased away by Ren Lifei. Lu Linjiang had stayed behind under the pretext of seeing Jiang Cheng off, and thus had the privilege of witnessing Guo Junyi’s catatonic state. Jiang Cheng glanced at him. "He hasn't fully recovered yet. His vital signs are still a bit low."
Lu Linjiang’s interest lay elsewhere, and he immediately abandoned the topic of Guo Junyi. "Speaking of vitals, I think you look much thinner than him."
Jiang Cheng didn't care that he had worked himself into a stick during this period. He gave a noncommittal hum. "I'm fine."
Jiang Cheng had more free time lately. Although he still had to go to the lab, he didn't need to stay there all day. Lu Linjiang had thought he could have more contact with him, only to find that Jiang Cheng had moved directly into the dorms at Micro-U after leaving the lab. Before he could even regret overlooking this detail, he soon discovered that Jiang Langmin lived right next door—it was an endless source of irritation.
Compared to Lu Linjiang, who was barred at the gates of Micro-U, Jiang Langmin had the advantage of proximity. He naturally went in and out with Jiang Cheng every day. No matter when Lu Linjiang called Jiang Cheng, he could hear Jiang Langmin speaking nearby—not to mention the times Jiang Cheng was in the lab and couldn't answer his phone at all.
Lu Linjiang had been outmaneuvered. While his face remained calm, his heart was as anxious as an ant on a hot griddle. This was why he had shamelessly bypassed Ren Lifei to stay behind today; having finally found an opportunity, he had to maximize their contact time.
Unfortunately, Jiang Cheng didn't appreciate the gesture. His eyes were fixed solely on Guo Junyi. Guo Junyi’s gaze was vacant, mostly in a state of mental wandering. The three people in the room were operating on completely different frequencies.
Lu Linjiang had never imagined a day would come when he would feel anxious about making small talk, let alone that he would have to rack his brains to strike up a conversation with Jiang Cheng. It was a perfect illustration of the old saying: the tables have turned.
Guo Junyi finally snapped out of it while Jiang Cheng was examining him. He cooperated with the check-up and was about to engage in his usual banter with Jiang Cheng when he noticed Lu Linjiang standing nearby with a pensive look.
"Why are you still here?"
"I never left."
Now that Guo Junyi was back to his senses, his IQ returned as well. He narrowed his eyes and scrutinized Lu Linjiang, keenly sensing that the man had an ulterior motive. Taking advantage of the moment Jiang Cheng stepped out to get vacuum blood collection tubes, he grabbed Lu Linjiang. "What are you plotting?"
Lu Linjiang had no intention of hiding his thoughts. He answered bluntly, "Jiang Cheng."
Guo Junyi gasped. "You're sick!"
Lu Linjiang wasn't surprised by the reaction. He swatted Guo Junyi’s hand away. "I'm not."
Having just walked back from the edge of life and death, Guo Junyi already felt everything was surreal. Hearing this news from Lu Linjiang suddenly gave him the illusion that he had traveled through time. "I remember back then..."
"Yes, back then I was a fool," Lu Linjiang interrupted him. "I intend to correct that, while there’s still a chance."
Guo Junyi didn't know as much as Wang Ling, but his reaction wasn't much better. His first thought was to cut open Lu Linjiang’s head to see what on earth was inside.
Lu Linjiang kept glancing outside as he spoke. Guo Junyi looked at him in disbelief. "Are you for real?"
"Would I make this kind of joke?" The nurse’s station was only a few steps away from the ward; Jiang Cheng shouldn't have been gone this long. Lu Linjiang suspected he had been cornered by Jiang Langmin again, so he stood up and walked to the door to look out. "I really didn't like him before, but now I really lo—"
He stopped mid-sentence as he saw Jiang Cheng appear at the end of the hallway. Jiang Langmin was nowhere to be seen. But before he could breathe a sigh of relief, a beautiful face suddenly appeared behind Jiang Cheng.
Lu Linjiang instinctively felt something was wrong and bolted toward them.
***
