“Lil’ Bing?” Haggs looked at me in surprise.
I looked at the other side of the room. Xing Chuan looked dull as usual on the electrotherapy chair. He looked completely at ease. It seemed that he had already accepted the upcoming torture.
What is wrong with the men today? He Lei wants to be beaten up! Xing Chuan is sitting here waiting to be tortured!
Do they have to relieve the pain at the bottom of their hearts through physical torture?
“Lil’ Bing, bad timing to visit.” Haggs went up to me and placed the electric saw behind him.
I looked at Xing Chuan, who lifted his gaze to see me. Then, I turned to look at Haggs, saying, “Haggs, I touched Xing Chuan’s symbiotic flower the other day and saw some images. I think there’s some sort of emotional response between symbiotic flowers.”
The murderous intent on Haggs’ face vanished. I had obviously caught his attention. He and Raffles had been interested in symbiotic flowers all this time. However, there were many more important projects that required their attention; so many projects that the two of them weren’t enough.
Radical Star only had two scientists, Haggs and Raffles. They were engineers, mechanics, programmers, and so on concurrently. It was insufficient even with Xiao Ying and Little Carl assisting them. Recently, Xiao Ying had begun to train the children in the mechanic team and engineering team, hoping to take some of the burden off Raffles and Haggs.
“As of now, there are hardly any records about symbiotic flowers…” Haggs said while he put down the fear-inducing saw. “Before the world came to an end, cultivated symbiotic flowers were merely plants. There wasn’t any emotional interaction. As for the interaction between wild symbiotic flowers and their masters, it was only vaguely recorded as well. Some said that it was an exchange of emotions. Some said that it was memory storage. However, the response between symbiotic flowers wasn’t on record.”
“Are there male and female symbiotic flowers?” I looked at Haggs, who was paying close attention. “Maybe males and females can sense one another, but those of the same sex might not.”
“Interesting. The symbiotic flower is such a magical species!” Haggs was excited. What I’d said had stimulated his interest in symbiotic flowers.
“When Harry’s and my symbiotic flowers met, there wasn’t any special response, but mine responded to Xing Chuan’s. So, I wanted to try it with Xing Chuan again to see if there would be any response. I also wanted to see what the images were.” The bits and pieces of imagery seemed to have been absorbed by my symbiotic flower and constantly replayed in my head.
“Mm! Let’s give it a try immediately. Hold on a second.” Haggs turned to his lab table and pressed a few buttons. Then, the lab table opened up like a platform and revealed layers of exquisite equipment. He took out a small disc marked with my bitten apple symbol. It seemed he’d made this when he was still in Noah City.
Haggs placed the equipment in front of me and explained, “This is a brainwave detector. It can project the image that forms in your brain.” Then, he placed it on my temple. Suddenly, the disc adhered to my temple and the skin around it tightened. “Alright.” Haggs pressed something on the equipment and I felt the disc vibrate on my temple.
I looked at Xing Chuan. Xing Chuan immediately looked down, and he looked even more nervous compared to when he had been about to be tortured by Haggs earlier.
Haggs walked up to him and removed all the cables. He glared at Xing Chuan coldly. “Hmph. Why are you nervous? Are you worried that Lil’ Bing might see your darkest side?”
Xing Chuan’s hands gripped the armrests rightly. He became fidgety. I looked at Haggs, asking, “Haggs, can you go out for a bit?”
Haggs was surprised, but he nodded at me respectfully. He put his hands into his pockets. Then, he shot Xing Chuan another cold glare before he walked past me and left the lab.
Only Xing Chuan and I were left in the lab. “There are only two of us left,” I said softly to Xing Chuan. He became calm and nodded.
“Take it off,” I said. “You heard what I said earlier.”
Xing Chuan pursed his lips. He supported himself on the armrests and stood up slowly. The process seemed to use up a lot of his strength. He coughed uncomfortably. “Cough, cough, cough…”
He creased his eyebrows in agony as he coughed, and slowly turned around. The lab was filled with his coughing noises.
He panted for a while and stopped coughing. He slowly lifted his hand and unbuttoned his shirt. The shirt slowly slid off his shoulder, but I didn’t see the spider lily on his back! His shirt moved lower, all the way down to his waist, but I still didn’t see the gorgeous Lycoris flower!
“Where’s the spider lily?!” I moved forward in shock. I lifted my hand and touched his smooth back. He immediately coughed and said, “Cough, cough, cough… A symbiotic flower… Cough, cough, cough… should age along with its master…”
“No, no!” I pressed my hand against his back. I had a strong feeling that Xing Chuan’s symbiotic flower had recorded something important. Something that the spider lily wanted to tell me urgently. I’d felt an intense and anxious feeling back then. It had to be the spider lily’s emotions.
“You can… wait for a while… Cough, cough, cough…” Xing Chuan said weakly. His helpless and calm tone revealed his once doting love towards me.
I creased my eyebrows faintly. The spider lily hadn’t appeared immediately back then. I slowly retracted my hand.
“Don’t go!” Suddenly, he turned slightly. The tips of my fingers had yet to leave his skin. “Put your hand on my back…” His voice was hoarse from his coughing. “Let it feel you…”
I wanted to call him a psychopath. But I thought back and recalled that I had seized his neck then. It was a form of bodily contact. I slowly pressed my hand against his back and my gaze slowly moved down along his spine. I looked at his piled up shirt. The spider lily was once gorgeous and seductive. Then, it had lost its vigor and slowly withered.
“Your symbiotic flower… Where did it come from…” Xing Chuan turned slightly to look at me and asked in the silent lab.
“None of your business.” I looked away. I didn’t want to talk to him.
“Cough… I’m sorry…” he said.
“What’s the point of that?” I smirked coldly. “No matter how you apologize, Harry is still a water ghost.” He became silent in my coldness.
Xing Chuan turned back and took a deep breath. “Yesterday… When our symbiotic flowers responded to each other, I heard what you said…”
“You felt it too?” I looked at his back, that hadn’t changed from his degeneration, in surprise.
“Yes…” His voice became softer. “You said… Why weren’t you the one who turned into a water ghost…”
I was shocked, and my heart ached once again.
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