After Being Parasitized by a Monster 27

Chapter 27: Shouldn’t it have turned into Xiao Ming?

Cheng Ming’s eyes snapped open, and the piercing noise of the monitor flooded her ears.

Beep—

Her heart rate had soared by 30%, instantly exceeding the preset alarm threshold and attracting the attention of the nursing staff.

Someone rushed over, adjusted the parameters of the ventilator, and said to her, “Breathe! Breathe! Relax!”

The hot air she exhaled fogged up the oxygen mask, and all the scenes before her became hazy and unreal. Cheng Ming dazedly did as she was told, as if she had suddenly been dragged back to the human world from hell.

When people are fragile and scared, they will subconsciously look for an anchor to moor their souls. That’s why many people will call out for their mothers in a crisis, no matter how old they are, and regardless of whether their mother is by their side.

She probably would have done the same before.

But Cheng Ran’s face still lingered in that tragic nightmare.

She called out in her mind in a daze, “Xiao Ming—”

Xiao Ming… Xiao Ming…

Her head hurt, and her consciousness was not clear.

The last time she had been sent to the intensive care unit in such a race against time was half a year ago, due to a cranial fungal infection.

After that, she had gained a parasitic partner whom she often hated to the point of wanting it dead.

It was only after these two words unconsciously appeared in her mind that Cheng Ming belatedly remembered that she was not calling herself.

This was the name she had given to the monster residing in her body.

She had given her nickname to it.

Xiao Ming.

Another silent call.

She tried her best to cooperate with the busy medical staff, closing her eyes and breathing deeply. But they were, after all, outsiders, strangers, and people who were distant from her.

Her body and mind were like floating in mid-air. The sky and the earth were spinning, and countless scattered images flickered in the void like glass fragments. Every breath was accompanied by the unease of about to fall into an abyss.

The world was twisted and upside down, and she only felt lonely.

She remembered everything that had happened before she lost consciousness.

She was eager to question this partner who was supposed to be one with her, why it had pleaded for that hostile creature, and why it had colluded with other monsters.

Unfortunately, the neural communication seemed to have failed.

The nasal cannula was ventilating, and the dizziness caused by hypoxia was gradually alleviating, but the uncomfortable feeling did not improve.

The medical staff on duty drew her blood for a test, and emergency medicine was injected into her body. The chaotic physiological symptoms were temporarily suppressed. The lights dimmed, and the ward was quiet, with no one else but her.

She felt a little cold on her scalp, and the mycelia seemed to be falling off. But since her last infection, she had no hair, so no one would suspect this.

This was the deepest darkness before dawn.

“Xiao Ming?”

There was no response for a long time, and her weak tone was mixed with a slight panic.

She really wanted to open her eyes to see what was wrong, but her eyelids were as heavy as if two mountains were pressing on them.

A second was stretched infinitely.

“I’m here.” Finally, a voice lighter than a feather sounded, “Cheng Ming, sleep.”

Cheng Ming’s consciousness was not clear, and she did not notice anything unusual.

She only felt that this whisper seemed to have come from a distant place, and had passed through countless long years of wind and frost before it barely reached her ears.

And so she forgot what she wanted to ask.

She let her body and mind fall from a high place, and fell back onto the soft bed of reality on a feather, and fell into a deep sleep.

…

The medical vehicle had left a long time ago.

The 1st squad was still on duty in the research institute, conducting investigations.

But a certain person who was shouldering the most important “police dog” mission was obviously a little slack.

Yan Li didn’t know if the mysterious members of that mysterious department were all so innocent, cute, willful, and lawless… childish.

But she was not here to coax a child.

“Her life safety is the top priority. Any other issues will be discussed later,” she turned on the encrypted transmission of her helmet, impartial. “This is an order from above.”

“So annoying…” Little Seashell muttered on the private channel. “Who is she? She’s quite important, huh.”

“Her parents are both first-level researchers, especially her mother, Professor Cheng Ran, who was once the head of the animal group at the research institute.” This was news that Yan Li had just learned.

“Oh,” Little Seashell pouted. “My mom’s surname is also Cheng, and she’s also a first-level researcher.”

Her tone was as if she were saying, so what.

It was more like a child’s comparison and showing off.

Yan Li: “…”

…

After staying in the critical care ward for a night, the test results came out the next day. Not only was there hydra toxin, but also a viral infection.

And the virus was so aggressive that it quickly knocked her down.

For the next 48 hours, Cheng Ming was tossed back and forth between high fever and cooling. She was not very clear-headed when she was awake, and she couldn’t sleep at all. She wanted to vomit but had nothing, and if she wanted to die, the white-robed angels would do their best to save her… In her memory, since the major illness at the age of 11, she had never suffered so much.

Cheng Ming was honorably absent from work and hospitalized.

After leaving the intensive care unit, she felt that even if the world were to end, it had nothing to do with her. She just wanted to have a good sleep.

However, over the course of the day, several rounds of visitors came to see her, waking her up at different times.

First was Huang Chengcheng.

The two sisters in distress hugged each other and cried, “Ah, Senior Sister, what a coincidence, why are you here too, wuwuwu…”

Then there was Jiang Dexin.

After a series of warm greetings and concerns, there were long sighs and a string of scoldings, “I told you not to stay up late, not to stay up late. Now look, you’re infected again…”

Cheng Ming had no way to argue and resignedly closed her eyes.

People from the Security Department also came to verify the situation with her.

Although she was a little sorry, she was a patient now.

So, she insisted that it was a coincidence that she was working overtime, a coincidence that she ran into a monster, a coincidence that she had a tool on her that she grabbed for self-defense, and a coincidence that the monster was weak and fragile… in short, there was no evidence to the contrary.

Not only could they do nothing to her, but they also had to consider her physical condition and couldn’t press her too hard.

She got through it easily.

The last one was Qu Ying.

Cheng Ming was woken up by a “crunch, crunch” sound.

To be honest, it was a very faint sound.

But perhaps because she had been tormented for the past two days and was a little neurotic, her hearing was too sensitive. To her ears, it was as clear as if it were scraping her eardrums.

Cheng Ming desperately opened her eyes and saw that the other person was sitting in the visitor’s seat, peeling an apple.

The fruit knife was sharp and moved nimbly between her fingertips, swish, swish, clean and neat, but with an inexplicable hint of hostility.

And so, after a brief relaxation at seeing a familiar face, her mood became even more desperate.

“Sister Yingying…” she leaned weakly against the big white pillow. “You don’t look like you’re peeling a fruit. You want to peel me, right?”

Qu Ying glanced at her and sneered, “It’s good that you know.”

Every time they didn’t see each other for a while, this little one would come up with some new trouble. Which parent could remain rational.

“You knew there was a monster in the research institute and you didn’t avoid it. How dare you stay there alone?” she asked in disbelief.

She could fool others, but she didn’t believe it was a coincidence.

Cheng Ming bit her lip awkwardly.

After a moment of embarrassment, her expression slowly became solemn, and she lowered her voice, “Sister Yingying, do you know what that thing is? It took my appearance and used my identity and authority… If I didn’t solve it myself, I was afraid it would drag me down with it.”

Qu Ying’s hand paused. She flicked off the apple peel on the back of the knife with her thumb and said calmly:

“I know, there’s a record of this thing. The species is unknown, and in our internal files, it’s called—’Jiao.’ It’s the most direct proof of the existence of the monster organization.”

Jiao?

After figuring out which character it was, Cheng Ming immediately thought of the mythical creature and was stunned, “A mermaid?”

But when she remembered the fish scales she had seen on the monster at that time, she suddenly understood why it was given this name.

“That’s right,” crunch. Qu Ying cut a piece of fruit with the peel into the trash can. “The information we have so far is that after they parasitize a human body, they have a powerful ability to manipulate flesh and blood.”

So they could change their form and simulate the appearance of others.

It sounded terrifying, but no matter how much they mutated, they were still living beings.

And as living beings, they had their limits and had to follow the rules of nature.

First of all, they could not survive independently in a waterless environment. For example, this time, it had used a hydra as an intermediate host to find a human.

Secondly, the change in appearance was limited. In essence, it was through the targeted implementation of cell proliferation and programmed death based on genetic information. With a short time and a heavy task, it could often only adjust the surface of the body, so it needed a similar body shape, and the internal organs and bones were not easy to change. An X-ray could distinguish the real from the fake.

In addition, their attack power was limited by the human body itself, and the danger of a direct encounter might not be as great as that of a hydra.

Finally, their lifespan was short. So far, none had been found to have lived for more than a month, and damage to the body would further shorten their lifespan. They also seemed to have no need to reproduce. So theoretically, even if they were left alone, they would automatically disappear after a period of time.

The inability to change bodies alone limited their development.

This was also why it was said that they were evidence of the existence of the organization.

This was not like a normal creature at all, but more like a disposable tool that had been specially created to complete a certain mission.

They disguised themselves as humans with a clear purpose.

For example, the one that had disguised itself as Cheng Ming, its target was the research institute’s incubation room.

So it had instinctively floated around her, looking for an opportunity, but in the end, it had not attacked her because of their “kinship.”

Although it was temporarily unclear, and it was hard to imagine, how these fish eggs, which had not even hatched, carried their purpose.

Once a mutated creature had high intelligence, its danger level was immeasurable.

“But I’ve never been in contact with it. How did it…” Cheng Ming was enlightened and then confused again.

Just as she was about to say that it was impossible for the other party to have gotten her genes, she paused and remembered something.

When the fish egg was still hidden in the planula larva in the form of a transparent “sea urchin,” she had had Xiao Ming implant conidia.

Was it because of this?

Then, shouldn’t it have turned into Xiao Ming?

Or were they in symbiosis, and even their genes were in a fused state?

The more she thought about it, the more her head hurt.

“Forget it…” Qu Ying looked at the trash can and sighed, beginning to reflect on herself. “It’s also my fault for being too busy and not paying enough attention to you.”

“…” Cheng Ming was meek.

The peel was gone. Qu Ying picked up the apple and put it in her own mouth, biting it with a crunch without blinking.

The person on the hospital bed was stunned.

Meeting her incredulous gaze, Qu Ying glanced over and scoffed, “Don’t look, you can’t eat it.”

Sister, aren’t you here to visit? How can you secretly eat the fruit you brought for a patient… Cheng Ming was at a loss for whether to laugh or cry.

Knock, knock—

A nurse outside the door said, “Hello! Ward rounds.”

The knock on the door interrupted the two of them.

Qu Ying finished the last bite of the apple and threw the core into the trash can. “Get well first. I’ll find you when you’re discharged.”

She stood up and picked up an overturned glass, and filled a cup of liquid from the thermos.

Cheng Ming looked closely. It was yellow and was juice.

She looked at the trash can again. Some of the peel she had just cut off was mottled and brown. It had been bruised and couldn’t be kept for too long.

The nurse came in. Qu Ying handed her the apple juice. “Drink it. I’m leaving.”

Cheng Ming was touched.

She carefully held the warm cup with the hand that had the IV needle in it. She suddenly remembered a question and asked, “Where did the juicer come from?”

“Your fellow patient’s,” she picked up the jacket next to her, paused to think, “Her name is—Da Huang, right?”

Cheng Ming: “…”

Xiao Huang, you’ve been promoted.

***

T/N:

Xiao: Little

Da: Big