Chapter 5: Birth of a Superman p2
Professor Mo was a meticulous scientist. He kept detailed records of how every single drug was used. Even if he accidentally broke a vial, he would record it.
He flipped to the last page. The final entry was indeed for “Synthesis Agent V,” followed by the number “1” and the character for “Large.”
Fang Qiang was so horrified he almost cried out.
Anyone else wouldn’t understand the entry, but he did. It meant that one vial of the newly invented fifth-generation synthesis agent had been used on a large test subject.
The problem was, the chimpanzee hadn’t even been delivered yet. Where had Professor Mo found a “large test subject”?
There was only one explanation. That night, Professor Mo had been too impatient to wait. He had injected the agent directly into himself.
So, he died from a failed experiment!
The world spun around Fang Qiang, and he collapsed onto the floor. Oh, God. The professor… he actually tested the drug on himself…
This shocking discovery sent waves of turmoil through him, a mixture of profound shock and unbearable pain.
If the project hadn’t been canceled, if he hadn’t been short on funds, the professor could have continued his research at a slower pace. He wouldn’t have been in such a rush to test the agent’s efficacy, wouldn’t have resorted to risking his own life.
Tears streamed down Fang Qiang’s face. He began to sob uncontrollably, for the professor, and for himself.
For the first time in his life, he felt utterly hopeless, devoid of any will to live.
Being dumped by his girlfriend, being humiliated while drunk, becoming a household-name “pervert,” losing the mentor he respected most at work—all these heavy blows had fallen within the span of two short weeks. The pain in his heart had reached its limit, and his mental fortitude was on the verge of collapse. Oh Lord, what should I do?
Clutching his head, Fang Qiang suddenly thought of Father Luo. Like a drowning man grasping at a straw, he quickly took out his phone and called him.
“Father, are you there? I’m in a lot of pain right now. Can you…”
Before he could finish, Father Luo’s regretful voice came through the receiver. “Fang, listen to me first. There’s something I have to tell you. Because of your involvement in this scandal, the church feels that it would be inappropriate to accept you as a formal member of the clergy at this time.”
Fang Qiang felt his heart turn to ice, bit by bit. He listened numbly.
“Of course, we all believe you are innocent, but the opposition from the congregation is very strong. Some of the female members have even said that if you appear in any church, they will never attend services there again.”
“Don’t worry, Father. I won’t go to church anymore. I won’t cause you any more trouble,” Fang Qiang said with a bitter smile. He ended the call and turned off his phone.
He had lost all hope.
He remembered that Sunday, just two weeks ago, when Father Luo had told him with such kindness and certainty: “My child, the Lord will not abandon you, and love will not abandon you. You will surely find peace and happiness.”
But now?
Not only had love abandoned him, but the Lord had abandoned him, his mentor had abandoned him, the church had abandoned him. Even his job, his reputation, and his dignity as a man had all abandoned him.
That phone call to Father Luo, far from being a “lifesaving straw,” had become “the last straw that broke the camel’s back.”
And so, the thought of suicide began to form in Fang Qiang’s mind. It was a powerful, overwhelming urge. Professor, let me follow in your footsteps. Let’s go to heaven together… or to hell, that’s fine too…
Muttering to himself, Fang Qiang walked dazedly to the bookshelf and took out a bottle of ’82 French wine from the bottom shelf.
Professor Mo had kept it in the lab specifically to celebrate the moment the synthesis agent was successfully created.
Now, of course, it was no longer needed.
Fang Qiang mechanically uncorked the bottle and poured the wine into two glasses. He drank one and poured the other onto the floor as a tribute to the professor.
He drank and poured, glass after glass, until the entire bottle was empty.
The drunkenness washed over him, and his head grew heavy.
It was just like the night he had been dumped. But on that night, he could still feel sadness and pain. Tonight, he was numb to everything.
Reeking of alcohol, Fang Qiang smiled foolishly. He picked up the syringe, drew out all the transparent liquid from the remaining vial, and injected the entire contents into his left upper arm.
Since the synthesis agent was a complete failure, let me die by this invention.
The syringe fell from his hand and shattered into pieces.
Fang Qiang swayed and collapsed.
For the first few minutes, his body had no unusual reaction. But soon, a wave of heat spread from the injection site, surging through his limbs.
Then, a piercing pain erupted from his core.
Fang Qiang instinctively curled up, desperately rubbing his abdomen. But the pain, instead of subsiding, intensified tenfold, spreading throughout his body with the wave of heat.
It was as if he had been thrown into boiling water, his skin and blood cooked raw. It was as if ten thousand steel needles were stabbing every pore, every cell.
This was a pain beyond what any normal person could endure.
Fang Qiang finally let out a howl. “Help… hel…” he cried out.
He suddenly no longer wanted to die, at least not in such an agonizing way. But the sound that came out was completely hoarse, a monotonous, guttural croak: “Heh… heh…”
Terrified and in agony, Fang Qiang clawed at his own throat with one hand, while the other frantically scratched at his body. He writhed and struggled on the floor, his breathing growing faint.
In a haze, he thought he saw two figures leap in through the window and float to his side… The Black and White Impermanence?
It was Fang Qiang’s last thought.
***
The two figures who rushed to his side were indeed one black and one white, but they were certainly not underworld messengers.
They were high-level American special agents.
The white man bent down, pried open Fang Qiang’s eyelid to check his pupils, and shrugged in frustration. “Same symptoms as Mo,” he said in a low voice in English. “He’s a goner.”
The black man agreed with a curse. “Shit. What a load of crap. ‘Enhancement agent’? It’s just poison! We wasted so much time and manpower, and for what? Nothing.”
“Not necessarily. We could just report the formula as a poison. The desk jockeys might actually believe it’s a newly developed special toxin,” the white man joked morbidly.
They conferred in low voices for a moment. Since the synthesis agent was a complete failure, there was no point in staying. They prepared to leave and report back to their superiors.
Just as they turned, they both froze in shock.
Somehow, a stunningly beautiful woman in a military uniform had appeared in the lab. Her demonic figure was incredibly alluring, and she was coldly blocking their exit.
“Yu Lan!” they both exclaimed, their hands simultaneously reaching for their waists, then freezing again.
A black gun barrel was now pointed at each of their heads.
Yu Lan held a pistol in each hand, aimed steadily at her two opponents.
“Why didn’t you wrap your heads in body armor, like Black Snake?” she taunted in fluent English. “Then my guns would be useless, and you might have a chance to escape.”
Yu Lan had captured one of the agents and interrogated him, extracting all the intelligence. The Americans had sent a team to Dragon City for Professor Mo’s research, hoping to secretly acquire the invention before it gained widespread attention.
Who knew the invention would never succeed? The time and energy spent by two great powers, the covert battles fought between their agents, had all become a meaningless joke.
A thorough professional, even after grasping the full situation, Yu Lan sought to verify it from multiple angles. She had secretly followed Fang Qiang from the police station back to the institute. After witnessing the entire event unfold, she was finally convinced that the agent was indeed a complete failure.
The two agents, Black and White, had snuck in afterward. Yu Lan had remained hidden, letting them walk into her trap.
“I wouldn’t be so sure!” the white man sneered, unbuttoning his coat. Strapped to his chest was a vest of explosives. “The moment a bullet hits me, the vibration will set this off. We’ll all go see Jesus together.”
Yu Lan’s godlike marksmanship was so feared by agents of all nations that the normally death-averse Americans had been forced to resort to such a desperate, “life for a life” gamble. A shootout with her was certain death. As for close-quarters combat, the battle in the field a few days ago had scared the wits out of every American agent in Dragon City. If not for direct orders from headquarters to complete the mission, Black Snake and his men would never have willingly faced this terrifying “demoness” again.
“Go on, shoot! At worst, we all die together!” the black man roared, revealing a similar vest of explosives.
“Fine. I’ll let you go this time. Don’t let me catch you again,” Yu Lan said coldly.
The two agents exchanged a look and nodded. They slowly backed toward the window and swung one leg over the sill.
Just then, the laboratory was plunged into darkness.
Though the change was sudden, Yu Lan’s reaction was lightning-fast. In the pitch black, she leaped forward, using her memory of the layout to take cover behind a desk.
“Fuck you, big-tits! Die!” the black man’s wild laughter rang out from outside the window. It was followed by a WHOOSH, and a massive ball of fire erupted, sealing off the entire window.
They had clearly used some kind of special accelerant. The fire spread with astonishing speed. In the blink of an eye, half the laboratory was engulfed in flames.
Anyone else would have had to turn and run for the main door. But that would have been a detour, making it impossible to catch the enemy.
At the critical moment, Yu Lan shoved a large wooden medicine cabinet, sending it toppling toward the window.
Using the instant the falling cabinet suppressed the flames, she stepped onto it and launched herself into the air. Like a performer leaping through a hoop of fire, she jumped straight through the burning window, rolled on the ground to extinguish the sparks on her uniform, and took off in pursuit of the two agents, who hadn’t gotten far.
The fire roared like a rampaging red demon, quickly consuming the entire laboratory.
Shouts of alarm could be heard from nearby, but no one dared to approach.
In moments, the tables, chairs, cabinets—everything in the room—was burning, turning to ash in the flames.
Fang Qiang, lying on the floor, had already been swallowed by the sea of fire.
Yu Lan, intent on capturing the two American agents, did not stay to save him. Whether this was because of her sister, and a subconscious aversion to the man that made her willing to let him die, only Yu Lan herself would ever truly know.
The flames licked at Fang Qiang’s body, burning his clothes to nothing, his skin turning to charcoal…
