SIATOWITF Chapter 44
by Volare“Six months?” Ji Mo An was somewhat surprised. In his twenty-six years, the only time he had lost consciousness for an extended period was during the car accident six years ago, but that had only been for two and a half months at most.
Six days was too short, and six years… that was far too long.
“Hiss…” The chopstick snake didn’t give an answer, only sweeping his palm with the tip of its tail.
A refreshing breeze blew past, and the bow on the snake’s head swayed in the wind, resembling a white rabbit hat.
“Sorry.” Ji Mo An touched the top of the little snake’s head. A faint red mark could be seen beneath the white bandage.
“Stick, stick~” The chopstick snake was overjoyed, hastily rubbing its small head against his fingertips, a pair of large golden eyes gazing at Ji Mo An in a round, innocent manner.
It seemed that the Star-Moon creatures with missing limbs in those photos were also restricted in some way, just like Xuan Bai.
Ji Mo An lowered his eyes, gazing at the ground covered in ashes, and stepped on the last bit of spark, extinguishing it.
If he continued to ask, the wounds on Xuan Bai’s body might connect, and then… limbs would fall off.
Then, perhaps the Seventh Bureau and his grandfather’s guesses were wrong.
But Star-Moon did take away the souls of the deceased.
The most likely possibility now was that he had already died in the car accident, but Star-Moon had pulled him into that mysterious place for a period of time.
So… his return, or rather, resurrection, was likely related to Xuan Bai.
No, that’s not right…
Ji Mo An suddenly remembered that photo again. Xuan Bai had appeared under the streetlight the day before his car accident.
No, that’s not right… If he had only entered Star-Moon after the car accident, how could Xuan Bai have appeared there before the car accident?
The somewhat clear thoughts he had managed to sort out became a jumbled mess again. Ji Mo An looked at the little snake coiled around his wrist, already asleep, and ultimately just sighed softly.
Xuan Bai couldn’t say anymore, so… he could only find out himself.
–
“Su Nai, come quickly.”
In a remote island base thousands of miles away, a doctor with light green hair frowned as he looked at the instrument in front of him.
“I’m here.” The space two meters behind the doctor suddenly trembled, and a woman in high heels walked out of thin air.
“What’s wrong?”
“Look, his electrocardiogram.” The doctor stepped aside, revealing the screen on the shelf.
It was a wave that was nearly a straight line, with only slight fluctuations every thirty seconds.
“We’ve already confirmed that the base only has a normal heartbeat for the alien snake within the 13-19 base points of the southeast orbit, which is within a thousand kilometers of Ji Mo An.”
“Now the base has been in the southeast orbit and has not moved.” Su Nai looked at the screen in her hand, “Ji Mo An hasn’t left the old house.”
“Twenty minutes ago, his heartbeat was close to zero, but he didn’t die, and even all the cells were still fresh.” The doctor stretched out his hand and hooked the transparent tube hanging from the shelf. “Su Nai, look at his skin.”
“Qingteng, are you okay?” Su Nai frowned slightly, asking the doctor.
“Ugh…” The doctor’s movement of hooking the tube paused. He lowered his head slightly, looking at his somewhat stiff fingertips.
Those were not normal human fingers. The position that should have been the nail bed was covered with a layer of black stratum corneum, and a tender green bud actually protruded from the center.
“It’s okay, I’m used to it.” As he spoke, the bud swayed slightly, and a finger-sized green leaf popped out with a “ber” sound.
“I feel like its growth rate is much faster than before.” Su Nai rubbed her brow wearily, reaching out and touching the bud on the doctor’s fingertip.
The bud suddenly swayed, flashing a few times as if it were stuck, and then disappeared out of thin air, leaving only a few dark cracks on the stratum corneum.
Su Nai opened her hand, and the bud appeared in her palm.
“Ugh… it feels like the blood vessels are much clearer.” The doctor let out a satisfied sigh, swaying his body from side to side, and a creaking sound came from somewhere.
“The leaf is one centimeter long, the stem is two centimeters long, and the roots… are estimated to be between forty and sixty centimeters.” Su Nai pinched the bud, and the transparent roots wrapped around her hand as if they were alive.
They looked incredibly fragile, but were actually tougher than fishing line.
“He has…” Su Nai shook her hand, and the bud broke into hundreds of pieces, scattering on the ground and disappearing.
“Scales.” The doctor moved a lamp from overhead, illuminating the dim platform.
The silent man was lying flat on it in a hospital gown, his hands and feet were tied with restraints, and countless wires connected to the instruments were attached to his chest and temples.
“I wanted to take some of his blood for testing.” The doctor took a syringe from the stainless steel tray, but there was nothing inside, and the sharp needle was bent almost ninety degrees.
“Here, scales grow wherever you poke it. Seven or eight syringes have been broken, and I haven’t gotten a single milliliter of blood.”
“This is more like a self-protective mechanism.” Su Nai put on gloves and touched Xuan Bai’s arm.
Dark snake scales grew densely on the skin, forming a sharp contrast with the pale skin around it.
She could feel the slightly bulging blood vessels under the scales, and even feel the blood rushing inside.
The blood was flowing, but the heart wasn’t beating.
The scales were thin, but as hard as iron.
“Qingteng, what do you need?” Su Nai gently pressed along the blood vessel, and cold scales grew wherever her fingertips touched.
“Some somatic cells. Su Nai, how much time is left?”
“They still don’t know that I’ve brought the alien snake here. The deadline is one month from now, and I’ll try to delay it as much as possible.” Su Nai pursed her lips, bending her fingers into an exaggerated arc.
“If we get suitable somatic cells now, I can grow a clone in about forty days. Are you going to send him back or…”
“No.” Beads of sweat slipped from Su Nai’s forehead, and spots of red gradually appeared on her palm.
“The Guild Leader has already begun to suspect me. We can’t let the alien snake fall into his hands. This opportunity is once in a lifetime. If we send him back, it will be difficult to get close again.”
“But the clone can only hide it for a while. After the Seer wakes up, the Guild Leader will definitely take over the association again.” The doctor was still a little hesitant, “We can wait…”
“We can’t delay it, Qingteng, look at your body. Thirteen’s wings have already started to hurt, and Fourteen… Fourteen doesn’t even know… Ha… We don’t need to hide it for long, just until the Guild Leader goes to fuse with the alien snake’s body.”
“He doesn’t have much time left, just like us… Let’s delay it, delay it until he’s eager to fuse. He can’t possibly fuse successfully with the clone, and as long as he dies…”
“Forgive me for speaking frankly, but he won’t succeed in fusing with the original body either.”
“Yes, but he will 100% fail to fuse with the clone…” Su Nai stopped halfway through her words and suddenly looked up.
She looked at the doctor in front of her, but the doctor didn’t look at her.
“Also, if you’re a player, your seniors will definitely tell you one thing.” A low, magnetic voice came from the front, and the man who had been silent and still stood up at some point.
Xuan Bai opened his eyes, a color that was clearly as bright as sunlight, but was rendered completely cold by the two narrow vertical pupils.
“Don’t play with the boss’s blood.”
As soon as the words fell, a few drops of flesh and blood in Su Nai’s palm shook violently.
“Be careful!” The doctor suddenly screamed, and he lunged forward, the sound of roots being torn apart echoing throughout the room.
“Cough…” Su Nai was blocked behind the doctor, she coughed violently, a smear of scarlet flowing from the corner of her lips.
“Ugh…” Xuan Bai jumped off the operating table, casually grabbed a white coat and put it on, walking forward barefoot.
“What a familiar smell.”
“Qingteng… Qingteng…” Su Nai stared blankly, holding up her hand, her clothes gradually soaked in green liquid.
“Can’t die.” Xuan Bai rolled his eyes, he grabbed the doctor’s collar with one hand and directly lifted the person up, as easily as if he were carrying a chick.
“Doctors should sit in chairs.”
“You…” Su Nai leaned against the wall to stand up, but before she could steady herself, she spat out another mouthful of blood.
Xuan Bai glanced at her, but what interested him most now was the doctor who was spitting out green water.
Such a familiar aura… He grabbed the doctor’s arm, only to see a layer of cyan stratum corneum growing on the skinny skin, like cyan tree bark. Numerous cyan roots stretched out near the elbow.
It’s just that they were broken now, gushing with green sap.
And below the waist, it was even more terrible.
Those were not human legs, but rather countless strands of vines and trees growing together.
“How old is he?” Xuan Bai turned around, blocking Su Nai’s attack with one hand.
“Sit.”
The snake kicked another wheeled chair over politely, sliding Su Nai back several meters.
“How old are you?” The vines under him moved, and Xuan Bai turned around, deciding to ask the person himself.
The doctor closed his mouth, his face ashen.
“Can’t understand?” Xuan Bai was a little puzzled. “Weren’t you just communicating in Chinese…”
“How old are you?”
“Hva? ert?úgamall?”
“What year were you born?”
“He is thirty-one years old this year.” A weak female voice came from behind, Su Nai leaned on the chair to stand up, she breathed softly, and raised her hands.
“Please don’t hurt him.”
“Thirty-one years old…” Xuan Bai narrowed his eyes slightly.
Thirty-two years ago, a companion from his hometown had fallen here and then…
After being rescued, he cried and sobbed, saying that he hadn’t had time to sew up the broken limbs…
Leaving a leaf in the world.
“Please give us a chance to explain, we didn’t want to hurt you. It’s just… forced by circumstances.” Su Nai walked over, forcing herself to maintain a steady tone.
“Oh.” The snake nodded, “Then tell me.”
“…” Su Nai was stunned, seemingly not expecting the snake to be so easy to talk to.
“I didn’t want to listen originally, but…” Xuan Bai sat on the operating table, crossed his legs, and used his foot to hook a broken vine.
“Now I want to listen.”
–
Ji Mo An stood in front of the locked door.
He gently touched the sleeping little snake’s forehead, took a deep breath, and inserted the key into the lock.
The door slid open silently, and a series of snores came from inside.
This was the best-case scenario, and Ji Mo An breathed a slight sigh of relief.
He quickly walked into the room, hung his windbreaker in the closet, put the chopstick snake wrapped like a rice dumpling in the wooden box, and went straight to the bathroom.
“Yang Ji, Yang Ji… wake up…”
He gently pushed Yang Ji’s shoulder until the man suddenly let out a big sneeze.
“Ouch… so dizzy… hiss… my head hurts…”
Yang Ji bared his teeth and grimaced as he sat up. The moment his hand touched the back of his head, he winced and shuddered.
“Ancestor… Ancestor, you…” He raised his head tearfully and saw Ji Mo An sitting on the edge of the bathtub.
“What were you in such a hurry for?” Ji Mo An preemptively asked.
“Ah?” Yang Ji made a confused sound.
“There’s water on the ground, it’s very slippery. You rushed in and didn’t stand steady, falling and hitting the back of your head… Sorry, I tried to help you up for a long time but couldn’t.” Ji Mo An sighed and handed Yang Ji a thick, warm towel.
“The servants at home don’t recognize you, and I couldn’t very well ask them to help.”
“I fell myself?” Yang Ji widened his eyes in confusion.
“What else?” Ji Mo An picked up the sunglasses and handed them to him, “Did I hit you?”
“Uh…”
“Or should I call Grandpa and have him come pick you up?”
“Hey, no, no, no, that’s too embarrassing, please don’t.” Yang Ji shuddered and forced himself to stand up, leaning on the door frame.
“Ancestor, I’m begging you, please don’t tell anyone that I knocked myself out, the Bureau Chief will kill me…”
“You can just sit on my bed. I just got a suit, I don’t know if it fits.” Although a little reluctant, Ji Mo An still took a garment bag.
It was a suit he had tailored for Xuan Bai…
“Hey, okay, thank you…”
“Ugh… oh…”
“The pants are a bit long, and the waist is a bit tight…” Yang Ji changed his clothes tremblingly, “It’s good, it’s good, thank you.”
“After all, you were injured in my room, and the reason was that I put red bath salts, causing you to misunderstand. It’s right to compensate you. There’s no time like the present, why not treat you to a good meal. Although it’s not as famous as the cuisine of the Magic City, it can be considered a delicacy.”
“Ah?” Yang Ji paused, looked out the window, and then looked at the smiling Ji Mo An.
“Now?”
“Of course.”
“It’s already two in the morning…”
“The restaurant is in the middle of a 301-meter skyscraper, and we can watch the sunrise while we’re at it.” Ji Mo An flipped out a real-time menu and held it in front of Yang Ji.
“This… I think I’ll pass… ah?” Yang Ji hadn’t finished speaking when his gaze was attracted by a string of numbers on the menu.
“Twelve thousand? Per person?”
“Of course not.” Ji Mo An slightly curved his lips, “One dish. Mr. Yang Ji is indeed lucky, wild yellow croaker isn’t available all the time.”
“Uh…”
“It’s a rare opportunity, I’ll treat you to some other dishes in a few days.”
“…”
“Gulu…”
……
“You went with him?” Jing Junze was in the middle of a meeting when he received Yang Ji’s call for help.
“No, boss. Twelve thousand for one dish, I can’t afford to eat something so expensive in my life, and what’s that half-headed abalone, I’ve never even heard of it.”
Yang Ji was hiding in the golden and magnificent bathroom, desperately suppressing his voice.
“Hurry up and come save me, I’m waiting to eat, but the dishes haven’t even been served yet.”
“You…”
“Oh right.” Yang Ji carefully looked out the crack of the door, “That ancestor is already in cahoots with the snake.”
“Damn it,”
“I wasn’t knocked out myself, I lost consciousness after being glanced at by something. It must be a weapon that the snake left for the ancestor!”
“And the second time, I was knocked out by that ancestor, damn it, he’s definitely practiced golf.”
“Then why are you still there eating!” The tone on the other side suddenly became serious.
“Didn’t I pretend to be asleep until he came back? I don’t dare to leave! Boss, hurry up and send someone to save me! I’m really scared, he stands there like a god of slaughter, I’d believe it if you told me he stabbed a hundred people to death…”
“Wait there.”
“Hey… okay, okay. Can I come after I’ve eaten…”