Early the next morning, before the cell lights had even turned on, Ye Li got out of bed, headed into the bathroom, and began chugging cold water.
The weather had already cooled down in October. The morning water was bone-chilling, and gulping it down sent violent shivers straight through her.
Yet mouthful after mouthful, Ye Li drank until her stomach was bloated with freezing water.
Her “efforts” soon bore fruit. Her stomach began to gurgle loudly, churning in total turmoil, followed by wave upon wave of violent, purging cramps.
When the laboratory personnel arrived at the cell, they found their surgical subject pale-faced and sprawled on the bed like a dead fish, and their expressions immediately soured.
Clutching her hollowed, aching stomach, Ye Li weakly suggested postponing the operation.
The staff agreed without much hesitation.
After all, nobody wanted the test subject to suddenly empty their bowels in an explosive disaster midway through surgery...
Yeah, that scene was far too horrific; just thinking about it was revolting.
And so, the experimental surgery originally scheduled for the morning was successfully pushed back to the afternoon.
Yet no sooner had the lab personnel left than another group of testing technicians in hazmat suits entered the cell with equipment in tow.
Today happened to be a blood-testing day as well.
The Mutants lined up one by one for their tests. Even the completely drained Ye Li couldn't escape, having a large vial of blood drawn from her arm.
Once the testing was over, Qiao Bei prepared to take Duoduo out.
Earlier, using the excuse that Ye Li was having surgery and Duoduo had no one to look after her, he had submitted a request to the lab higher-ups to bring Duoduo along to stay in the laboratory for the day.
However, having just learned her big sister was going into surgery again, Duoduo refused to leave.
With rimmed, teary eyes and on the verge of sobbing, she hovered by Ye Li’s bedside, her little face etched with worry.
“What’s the matter? Worried about me?” Ye Li teased with a smile. “Then give your big sister a quick smile. Make me laugh a little, and it won’t hurt anymore!”
Knowing Ye Li was just teasing her, Duoduo pouted unhappily.
Her puffed-up cheeks made her look just like an inflated little blowfish, making Ye Li unable to resist reaching out to poke her soft, tender face.
“Alright, Duoduo, we should get going,” Qiao Bei urged from the side. “Your sister’s stomach is still upset. Let her get some rest.”
Duoduo looked at her big brother, then at her big sister, still reluctant to leave.
Ye Li reached up and rubbed her little head. “Be good, go with your brother. See you tonight!”
Only then did Duoduo nod obediently. Clutching her towel teddy bear, she meekly took her brother’s hand.
Right before stepping through the door, she suddenly turned back and quickly pulled the corners of her mouth up at her sister.
The child’s gap-toothed smile looked both bizarre and utterly adorable, instantly drawing a chuckle from Ye Li.
The cell door slammed shut with a heavy thud. Ye Li closed her eyes, resting to conserve her energy for the afternoon surgery.
Time flew by in a flash.
At four-thirty in the afternoon, Ye Li lay on the operating table once again.
Her limbs were restrained, and a bite guard was strapped tightly into her mouth to keep her from biting her tongue, leaving her waiting like a lamb for the slaughter for the torment to come.
Because this laparotomy carried severe risks, Qiao Bei was also stationed on standby nearby just in case.
Around four-fifty, the surgery officially commenced. Fully suited lab personnel buzzed continuously around Ye Li.
As a razor-sharp scalpel sliced open her soft abdomen, Qiao Bei watched helplessly as the woman who always wore an aloof, nonchalant expression had her features contort in sheer agony, her face twisting into a grimace.
The shrill, agonizing screeches issuing from her throat were like steel needles stabbing savagely into his eardrums, grating on his nerves and tearing at his heart, making it unbearable to watch.
Yet everyone else around her turned a completely blind eye to her suffering, treating her purely as a test subject to be dissected at will rather than a living human being.
Even when she couldn't endure it any longer and blacked out, hovering on the brink of death, they refused to let him step forward to treat her—all just to record accurate data on her ability's trigger threshold.
In that moment, a profound sense of powerlessness and rage welled up within Qiao Bei’s chest.
He lowered his head and clenched his fists. The nervousness and apprehension he had previously felt vanished completely, replaced only by iron resolve!
He had to escape with them!
Escape this inhumane living hell!
The experimental surgery lasted nearly an hour before finally coming to an end.
Aside from her heart, virtually every organ in Ye Li's abdominal cavity had been tampered with, and part of her liver was ultimately excised.
Qiao Bei volunteered to stay behind to help clean up the surgical instruments, quietly pocketing a scalpel when no one was looking.
After everyone had cleared out, he doctored the registry records, changing the test subject's status to deceased.
At this moment, Ye Li was still unconscious.
Qiao Bei carefully zipped her into a body bag, lifted her onto a cart, and wheeled her into an empty adjacent laboratory.
Then he hurried back to the breakroom, carried out the soundly sleeping Duoduo—whom he had already injected with diazepam—and hid her inside a small garbage bin he had prepped, piling some experimental waste on top while ensuring she had plenty of air to breathe.
Because the bin was quite small, impossible for an adult to hide inside, people rarely opened it for thorough inspections under normal circumstances.
Furthermore, the dose of diazepam given to Duoduo guaranteed she would sleep for at least five hours, making complications practically impossible.
After hiding Duoduo, Qiao Bei hauled two small garbage bins back to the lab where Ye Li was being kept.
By now, the time was six-twenty, leaving ten minutes until their scheduled departure.
According to plan, Qiao Bei injected Ye Li with adrenaline, forcibly pulling her awake from her coma.
Soon, Ye Li opened her eyes.
The first thing she felt was violent heart palpitations. Her heart pounded frantically as though it were about to burst, leaving her nauseous, dizzy, and sick to her stomach.
Ye Li gritted her teeth and bore through it. The chill radiating from her scarlet eyes was sharp as a blade, filling Qiao Bei with dread yet also unshakeable concern.
“How are you feeling, Sis?”
Ye Li waited a moment until the suffocating agony subsided slightly before rasping, “I can manage.”
As she spoke, she lifted the hem of her shirt to inspect herself, only to find that on her bloody belly, the previously slashed wound had already almost closed up, though the twisting pain inside her abdomen remained.
Ye Li frowned.
In this state, she looked nothing like a corpse.
“Where’s the scalpel I asked you to get?” she immediately asked Qiao Bei.
“Right here.” Qiao Bei quickly pulled the scalpel, wrapped in layers of gauze, from his pocket.
“Listen. Now I need you to take that knife and cut open my belly again!”
Ye Li’s tone was unnervingly calm, as if the stomach she wanted sliced open belonged to someone else entirely.
Qiao Bei stared at her in utter horror. “W-Why?”
“If we want to pass me off as a corpse, I have to look like one!” Ye Li explained. “Cut my belly open first, and once we’re through the back door, you can use your ability to heal me. Don’t worry, my ability will stop the bleeding quickly. I won’t die.”
Qiao Bei understood, but his nerves flared out of control anyway, his hand trembling as he held the scalpel. “B-But I don’t have much experience. I’m scared I’ll mess it up.”
He had only ever used a scalpel on donor cadavers; he had never operated on a living person.
“I’m not even scared, so what are you afraid of?” Ye Li gave him no room to dither, lying right back down and urging him, “Hurry up, there’s no time!”
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