The ultimate blue sea

Chapter 60-Betrayal

Cheng Weizhi froze, for a time not knowing where to start. Su Qing didn't press him, only sat quietly across from him, like when they had been back at the grey house—Su Qing always curious, always raising questions even if he only half understood, and Cheng Weizhi able to speak on any topic, student and teacher both benefiting.

After waiting for a while, Su Qing took advantage of Cheng Weizhi's pause to organize his words to quietly observe his facial expression while he selectively revealed and concealed what had happened with the living dead man the night before: "We've been investigating a case these past few days. Oh, I mentioned it to you last time. We suspect that Utopia is carrying on human experimentation, researching an external energy crystal. There are many victims involved in this. They're all dead now. All the bodies were delivered to headquarters, and the weird thing is, one of them, who was supposed to have been dead for more than two days, suddenly stood up last night. And when he was shot in the calf by the patrols, the leg's muscles and epithelial tissue healed on their own."

As Su Qing spoke, he took out a cigarette and gestured to Cheng Weizhi, only lighting up after he indicated that he didn't object. He held it between his finger in a practiced gesture, took a long drag and breathed out, then crossed one leg over the other, leaning back in his chair in relaxation, using the smoke to faintly obscure his scrutinizing gaze.

He suddenly felt a little tired and thought somewhat self-mockingly that it was as though because he was a swindler, he thought that no one on earth could be trusted—like the old man sitting across from him. Back when he had been a powerless person with nothing but anger and hot blood, he had been willing to use his life to protect him. But now he was looking at him with this gaze full of suspicion and scrutiny, leading him bit by bit to tell him the "truth" he wanted.

What was the truth?

Was the truth after all that he had rejected that past destitute self, or was it that that past real self had rejected the repulsive professional swindler of the present?

Cheng Weizhi didn't know about his overcomplicated inner world. He nearly held his breath as he listened, then urgently asked, "And then what? How is that person now?"

Su Qing paused, then said, "He isn't. He's still a corpse that couldn't be more dead. But we followed the clues and found something left out in the cold. Something like an energy hub. It's likely that the remaining energy in the solid-state medium within the body was activated by the hub and formed a circuit, creating a cycle inside his body analogous to a blue seal."

Cheng Weizhi frowned. "But his nerve tissue couldn't be stimulated to repair itself."

Su Qing nodded and tapped ash out of his cigarette. "Dr. Lu said that nerve tissue is the hardest to repair. Do you think it's possible that there wasn't enough energy to activate it?"

Cheng Weizhi nodded very, very slowly.

Su Qing quickly followed up: "In other words, this unknown energy is strong enough to kill a man, but it isn't sufficient to save his life—so according to this logic, since the energy stored in my double core energy crystal system could stimulate my whole body, then it must have been over the threshold of what could kill me. I think that inference is right?"

Cheng Weizhi looked at him.

Su Qing didn't speak, either, only silently and took a slightly fierce drag on his cigarette. The only sounds in the room were from Cheng Ge's paintbrush and the rustling of paper.

"Child, what are you trying to ask?" Cheng Weizhi asked after a long time.

"This is what I don't understand," said Su Qing. "Energy can't vanish out of nowhere. It can only be converted to another form. What is the actual difference between a double core energy crystal system and a single one? Why does one form of energy kill, while the other saves?"