Chapter 20

Chapter 020

Lu Yan had worked at the hospital for years, and his professional skill and work ethic were impeccable. He offered a comforting, practiced tone. "Lactation during pregnancy is a normal phenomenon."

Zhou Qiming currently didn't want to die, but he wasn't exactly thrilled to be alive either. He could only manage a weak, "Thank you."

He never imagined that within half an hour of meeting this doctor, his eligibility as a potential mate had been utterly annihilated.

Lu Yan briefly outlined the surgical procedure. "I'll need to perform a cesarean section to extract the fetus first, then locate and excise the placenta."

The system chimed in with a supplementary note. [Removing the placenta will only suppress the pathological changes temporarily, for roughly two years. If the pollution source—the mother entity—grows stronger, the ghost infant will regrow... My suggestion is to first resolve the pollution source on Zhou Qiming's person, then take a trip to Dragon Maiden Lake.]

[There's something there that King Fish desires greatly. It might be useful to you, though I'm not certain you'll like it.]

"What is it?"

[A carp must leap over the Dragon Gate to transform into a dragon. Since we can't find the Dragon Gate nowadays, we'll have to seek out the Dragon Maiden instead.]

Lu Yan paused, then continued speaking to his patient. "However, this will only prevent another pregnancy in the short term. In two years, if the pollution source at Dragon Maiden Lake grows stronger, a relapse is inevitable. Therefore, I recommend finding an opportunity to eradicate that pollution source completely."

The gravity of the situation quickly pulled Zhou Qiming from his despair.

"So, cutting out the placenta means I won't get pregnant again?" This was his most pressing concern. "To be perfectly honest, the surgical wounds on my stomach haven't had a chance to heal all month. We can't use anesthesia for these procedures. I genuinely don't want to go through a fifth time."

Childbirth was ten on the pain scale. Zhou Qiming may have been spared a natural delivery, but a C-section without anesthesia was enough to make the toughest men weep.

After countless critical patient rescues, Lu Yan had perfected his bedside manner. "Barring any complications, you shouldn't conceive again in the short term. But we can't entirely rule out the risk of anomalies. For safety's sake, let's sign the surgical consent form."

Zhou Qiming's heart sank. "Alright."

Sensing his apprehension, Lu Yan offered reassurance. "Don't worry. You won't die."

"...Okay."

For some reason, Zhou Qiming felt even more uneasy.

Lu Yan inspected the surgical equipment Zhou Qiming had prepared. State-of-the-art instruments, all functioning perfectly. And undoubtedly expensive.

"Dr. Lu, wait a moment," Zhou Qiming said. "Let me have Chen Shier come in and tie me securely to the table."

During the last surgery, the pain had been too much. He'd accidentally kicked the doctor and had to pay substantial compensation for workplace injury.

Upon hearing this, Chen Shier produced a silk-like ribbon and dutifully trussed up his boss.

Zhou Qiming now resembled a suckling pig prepped on a roasting spit.

Chen Shier thumped his chest in assurance. "Don't worry, Doctor. This is silk from a B-Class pollutant, the Ice Silkworm. Incredibly strong. Market price is 2,000 contribution points per foot! If my boss can break free without using his talent, I'll cut off my own head and let you use it as a soccer ball."

"Oh, Doctor," he added, "mind if I watch from the side?"

"It's fine."

Some surgeons disliked being observed; it made them nervous. Lu Yan wasn't one of them.

Besides, if Chen Shier weren't allowed to watch, the nervous one would be Zhou Qiming.

Lu Yan switched on the surgical lamp.

Under the bright light, the ghost fetus on Zhou Qiming's stomach appeared even more horrifying and grotesque.

Its scalp was paper-thin, revealing the faint outline of an underdeveloped brain.

The ghost fetus seemed to fear the light. Perhaps sensing it was about to follow in its predecessors' footsteps, it thrashed and kicked in furious rebellion within its host.

Zhou Qiming's handsome brows furrowed deeply in pain. He couldn't help but curse in his local dialect. "Thrash all you want, you little bastard. Give it all you've got. In a bit, I'll scatter your ashes to the winds!"

With that, he clamped his teeth viciously onto a wooden stick.

This was mainly to prevent himself from screaming during the procedure. Startling the neighbors into thinking a murder was underway was a secondary concern; the real danger was startling Lu Yan into a shaky hand.

In Lu Yan's past surgical experiences, there were always several doctors, along with nurses and an anesthesiologist standing by. During lulls, the other doctors would crack jokes to lighten the mood.

Now, performing surgery alone felt somewhat lonely.

Lu Yan didn't make the first move immediately. Instead, he leisurely pulled his phone from his pocket and opened a video app.

Chen Shier, watching from the side, was curious. "Doctor, what are you doing?"

"Watching a tutorial video on cesarean sections," Lu Yan replied calmly. "I've never performed one before. I didn't do my rotation in obstetrics and gynecology."

Whether it was his imagination or not, a heavy silence descended upon the operating room.

Chen Shier leaned in and whispered, "Boss, want to change doctors now?"

Zhou Qiming glanced at Lu Yan's face, his tone filled with the tragic resolve of one marching to their doom. "No! I don't want another doctor. I want this one!"

Lu Yan watched the tutorial at 5x speed, memorizing the handling of several common complications. Satisfied he was prepared, he picked up the scalpel.

To be fair, Awakened individuals generally had robust constitutions. Even if Lu Yan failed, the likelihood of death was minimal. But as a doctor, Lu Yan still aimed to minimize mistakes.

"For a C-section, is epidural anesthesia also not an option?" he asked the system internally.

[It involves puncturing the spinal nerve roots. High probability of full-body paralysis.]

"So, assassinating an Awakened isn't too troublesome then. Just feed them anesthetic."

[Common anesthetics on the market are basically useless against Awakened, so no need to worry. Problems only arise if anesthesia is successfully administered. The human brain is remarkable. If consciousness is lost and control over the internal pollution source slips, the focus of disease can begin rapid pathological changes in a short time.]

Lu Yan stopped dwelling on it.

He completed the abdominal disinfection and laid out the sterile surgical drape.

When operating, Lu Yan was always intensely focused.

Ordinary blades couldn't cut Awakened skin. The scalpel Zhou Qiming had prepared was itself a B-Class tool, exceptionally sharp.

The incision from Zhou Qiming's last surgery hadn't fully healed. After a moment's thought, Lu Yan decided to make a new incision to avoid cross-contamination.

Layer by layer—subcutaneous fat, fascia, muscle—Lu Yan opened the abdominal cavity, which was already a mess of old scars.

Inside Zhou Qiming grew a tumor-like uterus, different from a normal female's. Its surface resembled a pulsating fruit, oozing a fine network of blood vessels.

To the maternal body, a fetus was essentially a tumor. The discomfort of pregnancy was the body's natural rejection response.

In nature, no creature remains undiminished during pregnancy. No wonder Zhou Qiming's spiritual power threshold kept dropping.

Lu Yan used gauze to stanch the bleeding, keeping the surgical field clear, then gently pierced the amniotic sac. Finally, he saw the fetus in its entirety.

It was ash-grey all over, its face covered in wrinkles, like a pug with human features.

The ghost fetus had no umbilical cord at its navel. Instead, it derived nourishment from the host through a tail attached to its lumbar spine.

The infant's expression was pure malice. It opened a mouth lined with jagged, fang-like teeth and let out a piercing shriek.

Larger than a normal newborn, its body was coated in a yellowish, unknown fluid that emitted a nauseating, fishy stench.

The infant tore through the peritoneum, bared its sharp teeth, and lunged to bite Lu Yan.

Chen Shier, quick as lightning, punched the ghost infant squarely in the stomach. With a spiritual power threshold of three thousand, he didn't even need to use his talent to handle a mere infant.

The creature's eyes rolled back, and it let out continuous wails of pain, filled with resentment and unwillingness.

The infant's cries triggered violent struggles from Zhou Qiming. The ghost fetus was using this method to stimulate the host's maternal instincts.

Chen Shier formed a hand seal with both hands and shouted, "HA!"

Shaolin martial art, Lion's Roar. Combined with his innate talent, it could shock those in a frenzied state back to clarity.

Zhou Qiming, struck by this verbal blow, gradually regained lucidity in his eyes.

Lu Yan drove the scalpel into the ghost fetus's heart, delivering the final blow.

In that instant, a violent pain exploded in his mind. He seemed to see a deep ocean, and something within it opened its eyes. A bizarre, icy gaze locked onto him.

The sound of crashing waves echoed in his ears, but this time, it wasn't the tide from Qu Hai.

[Well, it was optional before. Seems you have no choice now. You've killed the Dragon Maiden's child. She will come for you.]

Lu Yan's face turned deathly pale. By the time he regained his senses, the monster before him had stopped breathing.

"Dr. Lu, are you alright?" Chen Shier asked softly. "You looked like you were about to faint."

Lu Yan's head still throbbed painfully. "I'm fine."

The monster's tail rapidly withered. Lu Yan cut it off and examined it, finding it hollow inside. The inner wall of the tail was lined with rows of tiny teeth. It resembled a straw more than a tail.

Lu Yan began searching for the placenta the system mentioned. The uterus that nurtured the ghost infant was like a fleshy ball, with the placenta buried deep within its thick base. It looked like... a fresh brain.

As Lu Yan extracted the placenta, Zhou Qiming—already numbed by pain—clamped down hard on the wooden stick in his mouth. His eyes bulged, veins throbbed at his temples, his expression truly terrifying.

The thing felt slippery and disgusting to the touch.

Lu Yan removed his gloves. A new split opened on his palm.

The teeth lining his palm had grown sharp, unnaturally so. They didn't need to chew. In three or four bites, the pollution source was gone, swallowed whole.

The taste was rich, decadent. Like perfectly seared foie gras, all fatty flavor without the greasy aftertaste.

Lu Yan’s eyes narrowed slightly. An unhealthy flush spread across his cheeks, the look of a starving man who’d just gorged himself. An expression of deep, unconscious satisfaction settled on his face.

Chen Shisi watched, jaw slack. In that moment, Lu Yan seemed more like a pollutant than any mutant he’d ever seen.

……

……

The resilience of an Awakened was no joke. By the next day, Zhou Qimeng was already out of bed, moving around with surprising energy.

He ignored the lingering aches and paid Lu Yan a personal visit, a bouquet of carnations in hand.

Lu Yan was cooking when he arrived. Out of courtesy, he asked, “Want to come in and eat?”

Which is how they ended up sitting across from each other at the small table, an awkward silence hanging between them.

“I can feel it,” Zhou Qimeng finally said, breaking the quiet. He reached across and seized Lu Yan’s hand, pumping it vigorously. “My body’s already starting to recover. That Longnu Lake… it’s unnatural. The pollution source isn’t even that high-level, but once you’re contaminated, it’s almost impossible to cure. I’d already made my peace with being dissected by the Research Institute.”

“Anyway, thank you, Doctor. And your cooking… it’s really good. Tastes like home.”

Lu Yan was used to patients’ gratitude. He took it in stride. “It’s my job. You can skip the second part.”

“I mean it. With my contamination level so high, I’d lost my appetite. I only ate when I remembered to. But your food, Doctor Lu… it actually tastes good to me.”

Lu Yan didn’t even look up. “Thanks. Don’t talk while you eat.”

Zhou Qimeng’s expression turned serious. “Doctor Lu, you might be the only healing-type Awakened operating outside an Institute.”

“If I could find out your real identity, others will too. Healing pollution sickness always comes at a cost—the healer’s own contamination value rises. A healing gift is too rare. When people are desperate, not everyone plays by the rules.”

“Alright. I’ll be careful.”

“I’ll transfer the contribution points on the forum.” Zhou Qimeng smoothly pulled out his phone. “What’s your user ID, Doctor?”

Lu Yan recited a string of numbers.

A notification soon popped up on the Awakened forum: “‘Got1?’ has sent you a friend request.”

Zhou Qimeng coughed, embarrassed. “I was young. Just turned eighteen, didn’t know any better. Picked a dumb name.”

Lu Yan clicked on the profile. The registration date was twenty-five years ago.

“I’m actually forty-three,” Zhou Qimeng said with a faint smile. “A side effect of evolution, I guess. We all age slowly. Can’t be helped. Who knows how much longer any of us have? Doctor, you should make more friends among the Awakened. Otherwise, watching all your family and old friends die off one by one… it’s a special kind of hell.”

He transferred the points—six thousand two hundred in total. “If you need anything, just call. I’m not with the Special Operations Department, but I’ve been in this business a long time. No one would dare touch anyone under my protection.”

“Really?” A thought sparked in Lu Yan’s mind.

Zhou Qimeng nodded. “Of course.”

His point had been the latter part of the statement, but Lu Yan seemed to have latched onto the first bit.

Lu Yan set his chopsticks down. He looked Zhou Qimeng in the eye. “I want to go to Longnu Lake.”

*

Special Operations Department Headquarters.

An extremely unusual meeting was underway in the central conference hall.

Only thirteen people were present, all department heads. It was well-known that Awakened individuals were mentally unstable and had high mortality rates, making them generally poor candidates for management.

The Director sat at the head of the table, fury barely contained in his voice. “Who leaked the information on ‘Clairaudient’?”

The Department’s original plan had been to use a series of graduated missions to accelerate Lu Yan’s growth, preparing him to assist in the treatment of the “Tyrant.”

As the only Awakened in the world with a spiritual power threshold exceeding ten thousand, Tang Xian’an was the sole force capable of standing against S-Class pollutants on a global scale.

But Tang Xian’an’s contamination level was critically high. He was like an overloaded machine, perpetually on the verge of catastrophic failure.

Whether out of gratitude for his decades of service, or the sheer necessity of having a weapon against the pollutants, the Tyrant could not be allowed to fall.

“Assigning blame now is pointless,” sighed the head of the Pollution Disease Prevention Center, a woman whose hair had already turned silver. “We need to focus on damage control. Finding the mole is essential, but our immediate priority is ensuring Clairaudient’s safety.”

The Director of the First Research Institute sneered. “If we’d known this would happen, we should have brought him to the Institute in the first place.”

“Everyone with access to Clairaudient’s file has been questioned by ‘Truthseeker.’ No one lied. Either their memories have been scrubbed, or the information was leaked unintentionally, without their knowledge.” The Deputy Director rubbed his temples. “I have a proposal. Since the Tyrant has already returned to the country… why not let them interact? There’s no safer place for Clairaudient than by Tang Xian’an’s side.”

“Because of… past events, the Tyrant prefers to operate alone, despite having a team. But his contamination level is too high for complete solo missions. Clairaudient’s spiritual power is low, but so is his contamination. Perhaps it’s worth a trial? We can terminate the contact if it proves too dangerous.”

A brief, heavy silence filled the room.

“Would the Tyrant agree?”

“Would Clairaudient be willing?”

“Let’s vote,” the Director said finally. “If it passes, we ask. No harm in asking.”

The result was seven to six.

The motion passed.