Ice skates forward, regardless of east or west.

1

The soft sound from deep within the submarine sent chills down Gu Xidong's spine.

It wasn't a mechanical sound, but a breathing sound—a suppressed, watery panting breath coming from the direction of the storage compartment.

Ling Wuwen heard it too. She pulled the child closer to her, and with her other hand reached for the tool rack under the control panel—there was a wrench there.

Gu Xidong waved his hand to signal her not to move, and slowly stood up himself.

One step, two steps.

He walked to the door of the storage room.

The door was ajar, and the lights inside were off, with only a sliver of light from the main cabin seeping in.

Gu Xidong raised his foot and kicked the door open.

The instant the light flooded in, he saw a person huddled in a corner, soaking wet, their wetsuit torn in several places, revealing pale skin beneath. The person looked up—

It's B-3.

But it wasn't the B-3 that Gu Xidong knew. The clone's left cheek was severely burned, with the skin and flesh rolled back, and his right eye was swollen shut, leaving only a slit.

He was holding a sealed bag in his arms, and something inside the bag was faintly glowing.

"No...don't come any closer..." B-3's voice was hoarse like a broken bellows, "There's...there's a bomb..."

Gu Xidong stood frozen at the doorway.

Ling Wuwen slowly approached, carrying the child. Upon seeing who was inside, he gasped, "How could you…?"

"Before the ship exploded... I escaped from the lower deck..." B-3 coughed, spitting out blood-tinged seawater. "Ling Yaqin... she told me to bring this... to you..."

He held up the sealed bag.

The contents were now clearly visible—a cylindrical metal container, about the size of a palm, with interfaces at both ends and a green light flashing in the middle.

"The stock solution of the gene stabilizer..." B-3 said, "She said... the child needs... an injection once a month... otherwise the ability will get out of control..."

Gu Xidong stared at the container: "Where's the bomb?"

B-3 moved his body with difficulty, revealing his back—a small square was strapped to the bottom of his wetsuit, with red numbers jumping: 00:03:17.

three minutes.

"Ling Yashi's people... planted this on me..." B-3 smiled bitterly, "A tracker that's also a bomb... It'll activate if I'm out of their sight for more than five minutes... and it's already..."

The numbers jump to 00:03:16.

"Can it be dismantled?" Ling Wuwen asked urgently.

B-3 shook his head: "Neural connection... If you break it, I'll die... If you don't break it... we'll all die together..."

Outside the window, the roar of helicopters was already overhead. A loudspeaker could be heard: "Submarine crew, prepare to receive the rescue tether—"

"There's no time," Gu Xidong said. "Are you able to move? Let's get on the helicopter and find a bomb disposal expert."

"We can't get up there..." B-3 stared at the numbers. "Altitude changes... the air pressure changes... it'll explode prematurely..."

00:02:59.

Gu Xidong's brain was working at lightning speed.

Submarines, bombs, helicopters, children, stabilizers—all sorts of things collided in his mind. Then he grasped a detail.

"You said it would activate if it was out of sight for more than five minutes." He stared at B-3. "When did you detach?"

"Before you... boarded the submarine..." B-3 said, "I jumped overboard from the stern...swam over...and arrived...two minutes earlier than you..."

"So the bomb's countdown started from when you boarded the submarine?"

B-3 paused for a moment, then his eyes widened—the eye that wasn't swollen.

"Yes...yes! From the moment the signal disappeared...the submarine's metal hull shielded the signal...so..."

"So the timer is simulating a countdown," Gu Xidong interrupted him.

"The actual detonation condition is not the time, but the moment you leave the submarine and the signal is reconnected."

He turned and rushed to the control panel, turning on the submarine's external camera.

In the footage, the helicopter is already hovering above, and the cable is being lowered, but further away—hundreds of meters away—a speedboat is approaching, and the people on board are looking in this direction with binoculars.

"They've followed us," Gu Xidong said. "We'll detonate it as soon as you get out, or as soon as we get on the helicopter and the signal is restored."

00:02:01.

"What should we do then?" Ling Wuwen hugged the child tightly.

Gu Xidong looked at the sealed bag in B-3's arms, then at the speedboat outside the window.

A crazy plan took shape in his mind.

"Do you trust me?" he asked B-3.

B-3 laughed, his laughter straining against the burns on his face: "Even like this... how could you not believe me?"

"Okay." Gu Xidong grabbed a diving knife from the tool rack. "Lie flat and don't move."

He cut open the diving suit on the back of the B-3, revealing the bomb.

It is indeed a small square, attached to the skin with bio-adhesive, with several thin threads piercing under the skin—nerve connections; forcibly removing it will trigger a nerve connection.

But Gu Xidong didn't want to demolish it.

He rummaged through the storage room, found a first-aid kit, and injected B-3 with an adrenaline syringe.

"This will make your heart race and your blood pressure rise," he said, gently prying the edge of the bomb with the back of his knife.

"Neural connections rely on bioelectrical signals. The more stable your heartbeat, the more stable the signal. Now I'm going to make your heartbeat erratic—it will hurt, bear with it."

B-3 gritted his teeth and nodded.

Gu Xidong struck the left side of the bomb with the back of his knife—without touching the connecting wires, only shaking the outer casing.

At the same time, he placed his other hand on the B-3 carotid artery and pressed hard to artificially create an irregular heartbeat.

B-3 was in so much pain that his whole body was convulsing, but he didn't cry out.

炸弹上的红色数字开始乱跳：00:01:47、00:02:13、00:00:59……

"The signal is malfunctioning." Gu Xidong stared at the numbers. "It's recalibrating—now!"

He grabbed the sealed bag and shoved it into B-3's arms: "Hold on tight, don't let go no matter what!"

Then he turned to Ling Wuwen: "Take the child to the airtight cabin, put on a life jacket, and prepare to board the helicopter."

"And what about you?"

"I'll see him out." Gu Xidong looked at B-3.

"A bomb will only detonate if the target is confirmed to be alive. If the target is dead, it will enter standby mode—this is the standard logic for military tracking bombs."

"What are you going to do?"

2

Gu Xidong did not answer.

He helped B-3 up, and the two stumbled to the torpedo tube compartment at the rear of the submarine—this escape submarine was an old military model that still had the torpedo tubes.

"Go in." Gu Xidong opened the outer cover of the launch tube.

"I'll launch you out of the water, aiming at that speedboat. Once you're in the water, the sealed bag will float. You have to fake your death, release it, and let it drift towards the speedboat."

"That bomb..."

"The moment we enter the water, I will remotely detonate the submarine's smoke bombs—right at the launch tube opening. The smoke will obscure visibility, and the people on the speedboat will think that the bomb exploded on the submarine, and you will be 'blown up like a corpse'."

B-3 understood: "But if the smoke grenade detonates, the people on the helicopter will see it too..."

"So we need to hurry." Gu Xidong looked out the window; the mooring line had already been lowered to the top of the submarine.

"Ling Wuwen and the child boarded the helicopter to attract attention. We took advantage of the situation to make our move."

00:00:33.

There's no time for arguing.

Ling Wuwen rushed into the airtight cabin carrying the child, and Gu Xidong helped her put on a life jacket and fasten the safety buckle. Through the porthole, they could see the helicopter lowering its basket.

"Once you're up there, don't look back," Gu Xidong said. "Keep flying, don't stop."

"and you--"

"I'll come find you." He kissed her and the child's foreheads. "I promise."

The airtight compartment was filled with water, and the outer cover was opened. Ling Wuwen, carrying the child, crawled into the hanging basket, and the cable was retrieved.

Gu Xidong watched them ascend, enter the cabin, and then turn around and run back to the launch tube compartment.

B-3 had already climbed into the launch tube, clutching the sealed bag, trembling all over.

"Remember," Gu Xidong said, "play dead after entering the water for at least thirty seconds. Then swim in the opposite direction as far as you can."

"What are you going to do?"

"I have another plan." Gu Xidong initiated the launch procedure, "Three, two, one—"

High-pressure gas injection.

B-3 was launched from the submarine like a torpedo, tracing an arc through the air before landing in the direction of the speedboat. Almost simultaneously, Gu Xidong pressed the smoke grenade button.

A plume of thick white smoke exploded from the stern of the submarine, spreading rapidly and obscuring the sea surface.

The people on the speedboat were indeed fooled. They saw an "explosion," saw the B-3 crash into the water, and saw sealed bags floating on the surface—the faintly glowing containers were too conspicuous.

"Target dead! Retrieve the sample!" someone shouted from the speedboat.

They changed direction and drove toward the sealed bag.

Gu Xidong watched all of this from inside the submarine. Then he did something—he shut off all power and opened the sea valve.

Seawater began to rush in.

The submarine slowly sank.

He climbed into the airtight compartment, put on his last set of diving gear, and strapped on his oxygen tank. When the submarine sank to a depth of twenty meters, he swam out through the emergency exit and swam in the opposite direction.

Above, the speedboat retrieved the sealed bag.

They also retrieved the B-3 that was "playing dead"—they dragged him onto the boat and checked his pulse.

"Still alive!"

"Take him away! The boss wants him alive!"

The speedboat sped away.

When Gu Xidong surfaced, he was already two hundred meters away from where the submarine had sunk. He took off his mask and saw the helicopter still circling in the same spot, seemingly searching for him.

He waved.

The helicopter spotted him, descended, and lowered its sling.

But at that moment—

An explosion was heard from the direction of the speedboat.

It wasn't a bomb, but some kind of more violent explosion—flames shot into the sky, the speedboat instantly broke in two, and burning fragments flew everywhere.

Gu Xidong was stunned.

3

The power of that explosion... was far beyond what the small bombs on a B-3 could achieve.

unless……

He remembered the sealed bag in B-3's arms.

Gene stabilizer stock solution—what if it's more than just a stabilizer? What if Ling Yaqin added something else to it?

The sling was lowered in front of him, Gu Xidong grabbed it, and was pulled onto the helicopter.

The cabin door closed, and Ling Wuwen rushed over and hugged him. The child slept peacefully in her arms.

"The speedboat exploded..." the pilot said, turning around. "We need to get out of this area immediately; there might be a secondary explosion."

The helicopter climbs and turns.

Gu Xidong looked out the porthole at the burning sea below. The wreckage of the speedboat was sinking, and no one, including B-3, had surfaced.

"Is he dead?" Ling Wuwen asked softly.

Gu Xidong didn't answer. He looked at his hands—the hands that had just pushed the B-3 into the launch tube, and they were now trembling.

He was the one who sent B-3 out.

He used the sealed bag as bait.

If the explosion was caused by the sealed bag...

"It's not your fault." Ling Wuwen grasped his hand. "He chose to help us."

The helicopter flew away. The sea below returned to calm, with only a few patches of oil and floating debris remaining.

The child suddenly stirred and opened his eyes.

Her eyes were deep brown, the silvery-white rim of her pupils still visible. She looked at Gu Xidong, her small hand clasped in the air, then pointed out the porthole—

Something is reflecting light on the distant sea.

It's not wreckage.

It was a figure standing on a piece of floating ship debris, waving in the direction of the helicopter.

The distance was too far to see their faces clearly.

But Gu Xidong recognized the figure.

It's B-3.

He is still alive, and he is laughing—you can feel his laughter even from hundreds of meters away.

Then the figure jumped into the sea and disappeared.

"He..." Ling Wuwen's eyes widened.

Gu Xidong stared at the sea for a long, long time. Then he leaned back in his seat and closed his eyes.

"The stock solution of the gene stabilizer..." he murmured. "Ling Yaqin said that it's extremely unstable, and it will react when it encounters sound waves of a certain frequency..."

"What will happen?"

"It'll explode." Gu Xidong opened his eyes. "B-3 knew. He knew from the very beginning."

So that wasn't an accident. The B-3 used itself as bait, triggering an explosion with a tracker signal from the speedboat, resulting in mutual destruction.

4

The helicopter continued its flight. An hour later, they landed at a coast guard base in an island nation. Medical personnel took the child for examination, while Gu Xidong and Ling Wuwen were taken to give statements.

But in Gu Xidong's mind, B-3's last smile kept replaying.

There were also things Ling Yaqin didn't finish saying in the video.

After completing the basic check-up, they were moved into the base's temporary dormitory. The child was perfectly fine, just tired and sleeping soundly.

Late at night, Gu Xidong opened his laptop and inserted a USB drive.

This time, he opened the second document: "The Human Evolutionary Trap: Why 'Perfect Genes' Lead to Extinction".

The file begins with an animation: a gene sequence continuously replicates, mutates, and optimizes itself, eventually becoming "perfect"—all defects are repaired and all mutations are eliminated.

Then this perfect sequence began to break down.

Like dominoes, it begins to crumble from the inside out. A faulty base triggers a chain reaction, and the entire structure is reduced to a pile of meaningless code within seconds.

Ling Yaqin's narration began: "The driving force of evolution is diversity, flaws, and imperfections. The 'perfect gene' is like a perpetual motion machine without friction—it exists in theory, but in reality it will self-destruct. The end point of Ling Yashi's thirty years of research is not a superman, but a group of clones that will collectively collapse the moment they reach 'perfection'."

The screen switches to display a set of data:

All clones bred through the "Gu Raising Project" will experience nervous system breakdown after reaching maturity, a process that can take anywhere from three months to three years.

"The B-series clones are the latest batch; their collapse was delayed, but it's still unavoidable," Ling Yaqin said in a low voice.

"Except for one person—your daughter. Her 'mutation' is not evolution, but atavism. Her genetic sequence retains the most primitive and 'imperfect' parts of humanity, and it is these parts that make her immune to the collapse of perfection."

Gu Xidong paused the video and looked at the sleeping child on the bed.

Atavism.

Not a superman, but an ancient person.

Ling Ya-shi's lifelong pursuit of perfect evolution was actually a recipe for disaster. The only antidote was the "flaw" she despised the most.

He hesitated for a moment before opening the third document.

Title: Ling Yashi's true purpose: She doesn't want to evolve humanity, she wants to destroy it.

The image showed a photo of Ling Yashi when she was young, standing in a laboratory, holding a test tube, with a fervent look in her eyes.

"My sister spent her whole life filled with hatred," Ling Yaqin said wearily.

"She hates the injustice of the world, hates the stupidity of humanity, and hates that she can't become a 'better person.' So she decides—if humanity can't evolve, then everything will be cleared up, and we'll start from scratch. Once her 'perfect gene' virus is released, it will infect 70% of the global population within 24 hours, and then cause all infected people to die from genetic collapse within 48 hours. The remaining 30% of 'immune' people—who are all people with genetic defects, such as those with congenital heart disease, color blindness, or genetic diseases—will become the seeds of a new humanity."

Gu Xidong felt a chill run down his spine.

"But she discovered a problem three years ago." The video continues.

"Her virus needs a 'stabilizer' to accurately identify its targets. And the formula for this stabilizer requires a genetic sample from an 'autonomous evolutionary organism'—that is, your children. So she's not hunting you down; she's collecting the final materials."

The screen switches to a map marked with seven red dots: Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Europe, North America...

"These are the virus delivery points, already set up. Only stabilizers are needed." Ling Yaqin's face appeared on the screen, her eyes serious.

"I stole the stabilizer formula and hid it in the Northern City laboratory. But Ling Yashi knows its location; she'll find it sooner or later. You must obtain the formula before her and destroy it. Otherwise..."

The video suddenly cut out.

The last frame shows the laboratory door behind Ling Yaqin being forcibly opened, and several figures rushing in.

The video timestamp shows: 72 hours ago.

It was the day before they boarded the plane.

Gu Xidong turned off his computer and looked out the window. The base's searchlights swept across the night sky, and in the distance lay the pitch-black sea.

Ling Wuwen woke up and came over to hug him from behind.

"You've seen it all?" she asked softly.

"Um."

"Are we going to the northern city?"

"We have to go," Gu Xidong said. "For the children, and for those 70 percent of people."

"But there's definitely an ambush there."

"I know."

The two remained silent. The child turned over and continued sleeping.

At three o'clock in the morning, the base's alarm suddenly went off.

It's not a fire alarm, it's an intrusion alarm.

Gu Xidong rushed to the window and saw several cars parked outside the wall. A group of people climbed over the wall, moving swiftly and fully armed.

It's neither the military nor the police.

On the sleeve patch of their clothes was an eye embroidered.

"The overseers..." Ling Wuwen gasped, "They really exist?"

"Or rather, Ling Yashi's people are disguised as them." Gu Xidong grabbed his backpack. "Let's go!"

They picked up the child and rushed out of the room.

Chaos had broken out in the corridor. Base soldiers were assembling, but the intruders were faster. Bullets hit the walls, sending sparks flying.

Gu Xidong pulled Ling Wuwen towards the underground parking garage—there were cars there, maybe they could get out.

But there was a person standing at the garage door.

He was wearing a white lab coat and gold-rimmed glasses; he was around fifty years old and had a refined and cultured demeanor.

He wasn't carrying a weapon, just a tablet computer.

"Mr. Gu, Ms. Ling," he smiled, "please wait. We're not here to harm you."

Gu Xidong shielded his wife and daughter: "Then what are you here for?"

"Let's cooperate." The man held up a tablet; the screen displayed a photo—the entrance to the Northern City Laboratory, the door open, light shining from within.

"Ling Yashi is already inside. You need help to stop her."

Why should I believe you?

"Based on this." The man clicked on a video.

In the footage, B-3 stands in a room, his burns on his face bandaged, and says to the camera:

"Brother Gu, they saved me. Although I don't completely believe it, but now... we have no choice."

Video timestamp: 2 hours ago.

B-3 is still alive.

Gu Xidong stared at the screen, then at the man in front of him.

The alarm was getting closer, and gunshots were coming from outside the building.

"What do you want?" he asked.

"The stabilizer formula," the man said. "We also need to destroy it, but we need your help to enter the core area of ​​the laboratory—the gene lock there can only be opened by the genes of your family of three."

He spoke sincerely.

But Gu Xidong remembered Ling Yaqin's warning: Don't trust anyone.

Especially do not trust people who offer help unsolicited.

Footsteps could be heard outside the garage; the intruder had breached the defenses and was approaching.

The man glanced behind him, took two keys out of his pocket, and tossed them to Gu Xidong.

"At the very back of the garage, in the black SUV, full of gas, navigation set," he said. "Whether you go or not is your choice. But remember—if Ling Yashi's plan succeeds, the first to die will be your daughter. Because she is the only ingredient for the antidote to the 'Perfect Gene Virus'."

He turned and left, disappearing into the shadows.

Gu Xidong held the key and looked at Ling Wuwen.

There was indeed a black SUV in the garage, with the engine running and the headlights on.

Outside the building, someone shouted through a megaphone: "Find them! Capture the children alive first!"

"Let's go!" Ling Wuwen said.

The three of them rushed into the car, and Gu Xidong slammed on the gas, smashed open the garage door, and sped into the night.

In the rearview mirror, the base was ablaze with flames.

The destination has already been set on the navigation screen:

The city of the North.

Distance: 1,200 kilometers.

Estimated arrival time: 24 hours later.

Gu Xidong gripped the steering wheel tightly.

24 hours.

Ling Yashi will be waiting for them there.

This time, there was no Ling Yaqin, no B-3, only the three of them.

The child woke up in the back seat car seat, neither crying nor fussing, but simply staring at the darkness rushing past the window with his dark brown eyes with silvery white.

She seemed to know where she was going.

They also knew what would happen.