Can Ci Pin - - - Chapter 72

Chapter 72 – We Shall Meet In The Place Where There Is No Darkness

This person was too weak and couldn’t even hold a mini laser gun still.

Lu Bixing’s kind gaze fell onto the person’s mottled face as he spread his hands in front of him to indicate that he meant no harm.

He waited until the other seemed to calm down a bit and asked carefully: “You look like you need some help; pardon me, but are you infected with the Rainbow Virus? Where did you get infected?”

Lu Bixing thought his voice was already considerably gentle, but instead of calming the other down, it ended up triggering a violent response from the man before him. The laser gun that he’d slowly been lowering was quickly pulled back up as the man heard this line, and remained at a state of high alert: “How did you know this is the Rainbow Virus?”

Lu Bixing immediately realized that he was too caught up with finding the source of the virus that his mouth slipped: “Wait, calm down, I can explain, this is….”

The other was already a panicking animal that wouldn’t listen to anything Lu Bixing said. His expression grew increasingly grim as he frantically interrupted, as if hot metal was rolling out from his mouth: “You know this is the Rainbow Virus, then why are you here? You’re not afraid of the virus, how are you not afraid?! You must be one of them!”

This logic was complete nonsense.

Lu Bixing: “I….hey!”

“Shut up, shut up!” the man yelled as he shot towards Lu Bixing.

Under normal circumstances, it would be difficult to dodge a laser gun from this distance. Thankfully the attacker’s hands were shaking too violently that his shot completely missed its target and flew right above Lu Bixing’s head, leaving a burnt mark on the pale white wall behind him.

Lu Bixing thought, what kind of civil servant is this? No official procedures and won’t even give you a chance to appeal, you’re just given a death sentence the minute you step up.

Fortunately Headmaster Lu was still a firm believer in reasoning without violence and had no plans to fight against a laser gun head-on. He quickly ducked down to the ground and picked up the factory door he’d just kicked down earlier as a shield and dodged around the lasers.

The gunner’s eyes were filled with bloodshot like a demon as he held up the laser gun with both hands, shooting aimlessly as he chased Lu Bixing around. The broken door was soon in shambles; just then, the window behind the gunner shattered from impact. Lin Jingheng broke through the window and rolled into the factory.

Unfortunately, Commander Lin wasn’t a kind soul that would hold back against an ill opponent. As the gunner raised his arm subconsciously to protect his head from the rain of glass shards, he was kneed violently to the chest before he could even bring his arm above his head.

A normal person would suffer from gastric bleeding from this blow, let alone a patient of the Rainbow Virus. The gunner flew out from the attack and hit right onto the wall behind him. His rotting skin was like a moldy fruit skin that split open on contact with the wall, a trail of blood smeared down on the white wall. The arm that was holding the gun broke at the collision, the gun itself flying out of his hand towards Lu Bixing, who then caught it on the ground with his foot.

Lin Jingheng grabbed the gunner’s neck with his jacket between his hand and the rotten flesh, forcing the gunner down on the ground. The gunner’s eyes stared wide open as he struggled like a dead fish on the ground; a dry retching kept coming out of his throat, his eyes rolling from the strangling.

Lu Bixing: “Lin!”

Lin Jingheng turned his head expresionlessly before he loosened his grip slightly to search the gunner’s belongings. The metal detector on his personal device flashed positive, and Lin Jingheng swiftly pulled out a pair of magnetic handcuffs, two laser guns and a small knife. He tossed the weapons aside away from the individual’s reach.

Lu Bixing hastily tossed the broken door aside and ran over only to see the horrible state of this man, gasping in a cold breath that he could even feel blowing through his teeth.

His impression of Lin Jingheng was that while the latter always looked like he was in a bad mood, he was actually quite capable of staying within his lane and keeping it cool around harassment. Even when Lu Bixing was bothering him endlessly with flirtations, he’d never seen Lin Jingheng actually get mad. And because Lin Jingheng was constantly roasting people, sometimes it gave off the false impression that he was actually just a double-dealing man of all-talk only. Lu Bixing didn’t believe it until he personally witnessed this scene earlier–the deadly weapon raised by the Military Counsel of the Union had the ability to single-handedly kill a person within 30 seconds, and the only reason why he had never actually lifted a finger at Lu Bixing was perhaps out of…a strange sense of consideration.

Lin Jingheng pulled out a disinfecting spray from the first aid kit as his foot stepped on top of the person, and sprayed around the area thoroughly. He then picked up the ID he snatched from the gunner earlier with the jacket he took off earlier: “William Yu…Eighth Galaxy Police Department Superintendent? Pretty impressive rank, this ID looks like it was bought too.”

The superintendent puked out a mouthful of fluids from his empty stomach.

“The Eighth Galaxy’s Police Department is located on the capital planet Cayley, and as far as I know they don’t usually need to make intergalactic business trips, so may I ask why you’re here?” Lu Bixing asked, “Were you in the middle of some special security escort mission when Prince Cayley invaded the Eighth Galaxy?”

“There’s usually not a lot of escort missions for Police Departments. The guests are usually foreign diplomats or high-ranking officials, and a run-down place like the Eighth Galaxy normally wouldn’t have foreign guests…so did the Chief Executive happen to go out on a patrol during that time?” Lin Jingheng paused dramatically, “Oh, what a coincidence.”

This one line hinted that he suspected a spy within the higher-ups of the Eighth Galaxy’s government. Even though Superintendent Yu remained at a completely defeated position on the ground, he still raised his head up to glare at Lin Jingheng angrily.

Lu Bixing quickly followed up: “What about the Chief Executive, where is he?”

Superintendent Yu held his neck up defiantly and didn’t respond.

“This is Commander Lin from the Union,” Lu Bixing explained patiently. “We’ve already taken over the planet and are currently cleaning up the rest of the pirates within the Eighth Galaxy. Mister Yu, what I was trying to explain earlier when you refused to listen was that I’m aware of the Rainbow Virus and can come in contact with you -I’ve been infected once when I was a child, so I have antibodies. We’re really not space pirates.”

The Superintendent was finally able to listen calmly after a harsh beating.

By the later stages of the Rainbow Virus, the patient would experience symptoms of high fever and episodes of mania. His whole body felt like it was on fire as he carefully studied Lu Bixing through his hazy vision.

Lu Bixing’s cheerful expression was a natural reflection of his personality, developing an air of kindness and decency around him. Rumors had it that because ancient people aged too quickly, it was easy to determine an individual’s age through their physical attributes; of course, this no longer applied in today’s world, because anyone under the age of 200 looked about the same age. The Eighth Galaxy returned under Union rule 140 years ago, and if Lu Bixing was born 136 years ago, “getting infected by the Rainbow Virus” was quite believable.

Superintendent Yu was still only half convinced.

Lu Bixing pointed at himself: “Do I look like those murderers that blew up those planets?”

William Yu’s stiff shoulders finally relaxed a little.

“Sorry for using violence, please believe that we’re just acting out of self-defense.” Lu Bixing turned to glance at Lin Jingheng, only to see the latter staring deeply at him intimidatingly after hearing the line about being infected with the Rainbow Virus once.

Lu Bixing: “Commander, please lift your foot.”

Lin Jingheng finally stepped away and stood on the side with his hands in his pocket.

Lu Bixing continued to ask: “Do you have other comrades? How many of you are there, how did you guys get infected with the virus? Superintendent, you should know that it’s a very unique time right now, are you aware of the consequences and how many people will die if an epidemic were to occur?”

William struggled to get up, his lips moved slowly: “When we escaped, we chose this place to hide. This old factory is too contaminated for people to come near it, so everyone else is locked in the underground level.

Lin Jingheng responded apathetically: “Look like you do know that the Rainbow Virus is a highly infectious disease, did you send someone out to the shopping district in the city on purpose to take vengeance against society?”

“He had been injected with the ‘stopper’, which blocks him from spreading the disease to others 48 hours after injection…we only had one syringe, and the Prime Minister was on his last breath so we sent him out to seek help.” William spoke in a weak whisper, “We’re too scared to go into hospitals and epidemic prevention, and the medical system we have is barely functional. Plus…we didn’t know that the pirates on Qiming were already gone and were scared to expose our whereabouts…that’s why we tried our luck in the black market…”

And yet, little did he know that their hopeless situation could get worse.

These government officials were not familiar with the underground market and inevitably became victims of scammers. It wouldn’t have been a big deal if it was scamming for something else, but by the time they realized it was a scam, it was almost past the 48 hour limit and essentially destroyed any last hope they had to seek help outside.

Lin Jingheng: “Let’s go.”

Just then, his personal device vibrated; the Ninth Squadron had arrived.

Lin Jingheng turned slightly to the side and ordered: “Those that haven’t been injected with comprehensive antibodies stay back, block off this entire area and send a few medical capsules to the underground chamber of the factory. Also, I’ll need some emergency vaccines for the Rainbow Virus, quickly.”

Normally only frontline soldiers would need to be injected with comprehensive antibodies periodically. Superintendent Yu heard the order and studied Lin Jingheng curiously, then asked a slightly tough tone: “The Union’s line of defense is closing in tightly, how could they possibly have a fleet in the Eighth Galaxy – just which fleet are you from?”

This was a line that was offensive even for the Prime Minister of the Eighth Galaxy to say.

Yet Lin Jingheng was someone that wouldn’t yield to force. Everything else aside, his talent in arrogance was infamously well-known and accepted throughout the entire Union. At the question, he thought to himself: “Who do you think you are?”

So he didn’t even bother batting an eye and said: “Don’t ask questions you’re not supposed to be asking, stop talking nonsense!”

Due to the effects of the virus, the superintendent’s character turned into an irritable wild animal and was immediately offended by this arrogant attitude. He glared at Lin Jingheng and raised his voice: “You think you’re so powerful? Where were you guys when Cayley blew up? Where were you guys when three planets got destroyed and pirates roamed the galaxy?”

Lu Bixing’s heart jumped at these words and almost kneeled down before this rabid patient out of instinct. He carefully glanced towards Lin Jingheng, only to see the latter’s face hardening as expected.

“We…we starved for months because we couldn’t afford to pay salaries,” the superintendent rubbed his face and pulled a piece of his skin off. The blood dripped down his face as it blended with his flesh, yet it was almost as if he couldn’t feel pain and simply let the blood run into his mouth. “The Prime Minister wanted to report the situation to the Military Council and personally visited Wolto multiple times, but the government’s funds couldn’t even afford the travel expenses…everytime the Union called for an intergalactic conference, he would need to desperately gather funds and fly off to attend the conference…we were only asking for the Military Council to upgrade the anti-missile systems in the Eighth Galaxy because we’re the first line of defense against foreign space pirates. The other galaxies are fighting for military autonomy but we don’t mingle with them, we wouldn’t even dare to join in those political fights with you higher-ups. We just want to protect ourselves, we just want to protect ourselves! Does anyone care? Commander, are we not human in your eyes!?”

“Commander,” Lu Bixing rushed in between the two before Lin Jingheng could respond in an attempt to draw Lin’s attention away and said, “The Rainbow Virus is a purely artificial virus. It was completely eradicated back when the ‘mass disinfection’ happened, it supposedly shouldn’t resurface now without warning, this is really scary—Mister Yu, why aren’t you leading us down already, any delays will put your friends in danger. If the symptoms become too serious, even antibodies won’t be able to save them! Do you plan on letting the Prime Minister die?”

The superintendent regained his senses, then gave another ferocious glare at Lin Jingheng before he dragged his broken limbs and walked forward without a second word.

Turan brought a squad of armed mobiles and swiftly locked down the area for quarantine.

A giant disinfecting gun blew clouds of white mist into the air at the border of the lockdown area; and then with a unique form of technology, the mist merged with a mass of water vapour to form a large rain cloud. The armed mobiles outside formed a screen of light that scared the murder of crows as they flew off in panic, adding some lively sounds into the deserted area.

Inside the factory, Lin Jingheng suddenly opened his harsh mouth and gestured towards Lu Bixing: “Don’t avoid conflict, you should probably fix your habit of mediating everything you run into. William Yu, right? You better listen to what I say now. First, his introduction of me is slightly inaccurate. I am actually an ‘ex-commander’ of the Union; I left the Union five years ago and my fleet designation was cancelled. According to the Union’s Security Regulations, our fleet’s legality is no more legit than the Cayley pirates’ fleet, so stop using those bullshit regulations and rules from the Union to question me – you won’t get an answer. Second, if I remember correctly, that half-assed report has been passed back and forth for decades already and the Prime Minister has been replaced 860 times. The Union’s been ignoring you, and even though you were all well aware of this, you all still continued to cling onto this unrealistic expectation towards the Union, how ridiculous can you be? The government’s authority is limited, the Prime Minister’s words are less effective than the mafia, the government can’t even properly collect taxes, law enforcement is a complete joke; the entire Eighth Galaxy is a giant mess, who’s fault is it? You all blame the Union for not helping out, but why don’t you try to be autonomous, why don’t you declare independence, why don’t you find other ways out? The entire Union is restricted by strict air traffic control, nowhere else can obtain mechs as easily as in the Eighth Galaxy. If you have the power, you could’ve built your own armed forces. If you want something, why don’t you act on it and obtain it yourself instead of wagging your tails at people who clearly look down on you all?”

This man was usually careful with his words, but when poking at someone’s weak spot, it’s as if he suddenly got equipped with a speech accelerator. Superintendent Yu trembled at the words, unclear whether it was from anger or shame.

“Then don’t blame others for looking down on you all even more,” Lin Jingheng turned around and waved towards the robots that delivered the medical capsules. “You’re right, people in the Eighth Galaxy are not considered people in the eyes of the Union, or what else did you think? I see that you’re also not young, have you ever seen the census come to the Eighth Galaxy?”

The smile on Lu Bixing face disappeared in this rare moment as he interrupted strongly: “Lin!”

Lin Jingheng looked at him deeply and closed his mouth. For a split second, he realized he was purposely saying these words in front of Lu Bixing, purposely exposing the most garbage, merciless, and most heinous side of him as if he was afraid that Lu Bixing had completely misunderstood that he had any sort of redeeming personality qualities. And as he said these words, a strange and unexplainable feeling of satisfaction grew from the bottom of his heart like a twisted secret.

Turan personally led her men inside. The soldiers of the Ninth Squadron all stood before Lin Jingheng in their isolation clothing: “Commander!”

Lin Jingheng grabbed the isolation suit they handed him and threw one over to Lu Bixing. His gaze swiped through the staircase leading down to the underground chamber and nodded slightly. Turan waved her hand and ordered the robots to send the medical capsules down the staircase in an orderly fashion.

At this time, Willian Yu suddenly said: “It’s because we believe in the Union!”

Lin Jingheng sneered as he swiftly put on the isolation suit and pulled down the mask to cover his face.

“Back in 100..year 136 when Lu Xin reclaimed the Eighth Galaxy and fought off the space pirates, he taught us the Pledge of Freedom and had countless people willingly follow him. Our resources, weapons, secret terminals, family and lives…we all volunteered to give them to the Union because we looked up to him and the Union he described. We look up to the freedom, equality and glory he gave us…he told us, ‘we shall meet in the place where there is no darkness’[2]…”

Lin Jingheng’s back stiffened.

“Where is he?” William Yu asked quietly. “Where is the place where there is no darkness?”

“The place where there is no darkness,” Lin Jingheng said, “are you trying to mock something?”

Then, it was as if his soul was released at these words. His back slouched even more as he held onto the wall and slowly dragged his foot down to the underground chamber.

The underground chamber was like a freshly dug up ancient tomb.

As the door opened, even the isolation suit couldn’t fully block out that stench of rotten flesh. In ther corner were arround seven to eight bodies that were hard to distinguish ages and gender – they all looked as if they were horrifying corpses that were already rotting inside the ground. Lin Jingheng finally understood why they sent that skeleton man out–his condition could be considered much better than the others.

Even with Turan’s guts, she still shivered in shock: “Are they…are they still alive?”

Just as she finished, a ‘rotten corpse’ from the corner suddenly struggled to get up.

Turan yelped: “Oh shit!”

William Yu ran over frantically: “Prime Minister!”

There were a total of eight people inside the chamber, and six were still alive. The medical capsules quickly gathered as they scanned around for infrared and brainwave signals, injecting antibodies into the patients and clearing up the corpses.

Lu Bixing accidentally stepped on something and picked it up to see that it was a wallet. The bloodstained wallet carried a name tag for the Eighth Galaxy’s Executive Prime Minister that had been used during the Union conference. The middle-aged man in the photo was smiling kindly with a strong and stern look in his eyes. Lu Bixing lifted his head to see the skeleton that was sent inside the medical capsule and let out a sigh.

Just then, a few medical capsules began flashing red lights.

Turan: “Huh, what’s going on?”

“Antibody ineffective,” the robotic voice inside the medical capsule spoke. “Identified virus to be a mutated version of the Rainbow Virus, existing antibodies cannot take effect–”

Turan: “What!?”

A chill ran up Lin Jingheng’s spine like a violently rushing stream, stabbing from his spine up to his brain like a sharp needle.

[2] “We shall meet in the place where there is no darkness.” – George Orwell, 1984.