Bengtie: My death fueled their madness.

The decades he spent as Ruan Mei's student were the happiest time of Qi Zhimu's life.

The reason why people can endure darkness is because they have never seen light.

He had been living in darkness since he could remember, but a woman named Ruan Mei pulled him out and became his whole world.

……

Several days had passed when the convoy stopped again.

Qi Zhimu fainted, woke up, fainted again, woke up again, his eyelids were heavy, and it was extremely difficult to open them each time.

The concept of time became blurred, and occasionally someone would stuff a broken bowl into the cage, filled with a light ink-colored soup made from wild grass and leaves.

It's so bitter it's almost astringent; the bitterness goes from your tongue all the way down to your stomach.

However, the bitter taste actually made Qi Zhimu's mind a little clearer. After drinking it, he was able to keep his eyes open for a while longer and see the situation outside clearly.

The number of people in the cages decreases by several to ten each day. The man holding the child not far away has disappeared, and the child has also disappeared.

The sound of the mixing drum turning is heard every day.

Qi Zhimu had thought that it wouldn't be long before he would also enter that place and play his last remaining role, which was directed at others.

Livestock will struggle and cry out when they are slaughtered.

But when his day came, he had no strength left to struggle, and his expression didn't change much.

The weather was gloomy, with dark clouds hanging low.

Two soldiers opened Qi Zhimu's cage, and one hand reached in to grab his ankle and pull him out.

Qi Zhimu slid out of the cage, his back scraping against the edge of the iron plate, but he didn't feel any pain.

Pain had long since become a distant memory for him.

Several ladles of water were poured over it, which cleaned it up and made its body surface a little cleaner.

They just don't look like human beings at all...

His cheeks were deeply sunken, his cheekbones were prominent, and his lips were cracked in several places, with blood seeping out and congealing into dark red scabs.

Her neck was as thin as a hemp stick, and her collarbone was so prominent that you could see the shape of the entire bone.

Each rib is clearly imprinted under the skin, becoming more prominent with each shallow breath.

There was hardly any flesh on his arms and legs; his skin hung loosely on his bones.

Realizing he had been captured again, Qi Zhimu half-opened his eyes, his pupils reflecting the hazy sky.

As the mixing drum drew closer, the open opening revealed a glimpse of the infernal scene within in the dim light.

Is this the end of it...? Qi Zhimu closed his eyes resignedly.

The soldier was about to throw Qi Zhimu into the mixing drum, but at that moment, a mouthful of thick blood gushed from his mouth, and blood began to seep from his nostrils.

The viscous liquid contained dark red, light black, and an eerie pale green.

Several colors mixed together and dripped from the corners of his mouth onto the ground.

The soldier froze, instinctively looked down, saw the liquid stuck to his trouser leg, and abruptly let go.

"What's wrong with this kid?!"

The soldier's voice trembled as he took two steps back, staring at the blood at the corner of Qi Zhimu's mouth.

Qi Zhimu hit the back of his head on some gravel, but he didn't react. His eyes were closed, and his chest was not rising or falling. It was unclear whether he was dead or in a deep coma.

The veteran wearing military rank insignia walked over quickly and squatted down next to Qi Zhimu.

She reached out and pried open his eyelids to look at his pupils, then glanced at the pool of blood on the ground, a mixture of various colors, and her expression changed instantly.

Without hesitation, he took out a syringe from the box at his waist, rolled up his sleeve, inserted the needle into the vein, and pushed all the medicine in.

Then he pulled out a gas mask from his lower back and quickly put it on his face.

After doing all this, the veteran bent down and placed his finger in front of Qi Zhimu's nose.

His breathing was extremely weak, as if it might stop at any moment.

The veteran straightened up and shouted:

"Inject everyone with viral inhibitory antibodies, immediately put on gas masks and check the blood color of all sheep. Dispose of any abnormalities as quickly as possible to prevent further spread!"

The sound exploded over the convoy, and the soldiers moved swiftly.

He opened each cage, drew a short knife, grabbed the hand of the person inside, and made a cut in their palm, scrutinizing the color of the blood.

If the color is a normal red, close the cage again.

Anyone whose blood contained even a hint of black or green was dragged out of the cage and thrown onto the ground outside the carriage.

One after another, the number of people on the ground kept increasing.

Some of the people were still conscious when they were dragged out, making muffled, hoarse sounds.

"Be gentle! Don't kill the two-legged sheep right away!"

A soldier's voice came through his mask: "Sir, what's going on?"

The veteran's eyelids twitched as he explained, "The ruined city we passed through a few days ago was where many kinds of biological weapons were used during the war. The symptoms of green blood are recorded in the documents."

"Among them is a virus that cannot kill quickly, but will burst out with extremely strong infectivity and speed after the infected person dies."

"That country developed this virus specifically for use on spies infiltrating enemy countries."

"Once their spy identities are exposed, they will release the virus through suicide, causing a large-scale infection."

"Even if the appropriate suppressive drugs are not taken regularly, death can still occur within half a month."

The veteran's gaze fell on Qi Zhimu's face, where the green bloodstains were shocking.

"Judging from the color of this kid's blood, he has been infected for about ten days."

He raised his head and snorted coldly, then kicked his boot hard on the gravel ground, sending several small stones flying.

"We must get rid of all the infected guys. Damn it, if we weren't so pressed for time, we wouldn't have taken this road that leads through that ruined city."

Outside the simulated universe, witnessing everything that happened in the past and Qi Zhimu's ordeal, Hei Ta's expression was extremely, extremely, extremely—unpleasant.

She had never seen Qi Zhimu like that before.

In his previous life, Qi Zhimu's parents sacrificed themselves to save him, and the cruel reality and deep self-blame almost crushed him.

But at least, he never gave up on himself.

What we see now is only a calm acceptance of fate in Qi Zhimu's eyes.

He believed that this was how the world was: the old, weak, sick, and disabled would be eliminated, and those who couldn't go to the battlefield would become food.

But he's only six years old, just six years old!

"Yu Qingtu, I regret it even more now."

"What's wrong?"

"When you have to recall such a past, doesn't it make your chest feel tight and painful?"

These experiences will replay in your mind after this past life simulation ends.

To put it bluntly, it's no different from experiencing it firsthand again.

In his previous life, Qi Zhimu was trapped in a maze area when he was 12 years old. The things he experienced there were also hard to describe, which led to the loss of his memory.

At least, they lived like human beings.

Without a doubt, Ruan Mei's life in that lifetime was far more miserable than his previous one.

"...I'm sorry, Xiao'e didn't tell me about Xiao Mu's experience before..." Yu Qingtu was naturally also upset.

The memories she saw were all things that happened after Ruan Mei cured Qi Zhimu.

"If you want to stop..."

"...I was just venting, after all, this is what Zhi Mu decided to do... Ugh, so frustrating! Where the hell is Ruan Mei? Why hasn't she shown up to rescue Zhi Mu yet?"