"Hey, didn’t you get any sleep last night?"
"I did sleep!"
"No, you didn’t. I’m a professional doctor. I’m not blind. You can’t fool me."
Ren Zhong: "I said I slept, so I slept."
"Alright, whatever you say. Anyway, I wouldn’t mind if you hurry up and die. That way, I can be at ease." Sun Miao said, rolling his eyes while watching the mechanical arm stitch on Ren Zhong’s knee, "But in less than half a month, you’ve gone from a sickly person to this. You won’t die so easily. Sigh, what a pity."
Ren Zhong shrugged, "Thanks for the good wishes."
"Speaking of which, even though you’ve used the Cell Activity Enhancer, the speed of your improvement is still quite astounding. Tsk tsk, what’s the deal? Is it trendy now to use cancer to torture yourself until you’re a ghost of a person, then heal just in time before dying, and start leveling up at light speed? Like in those TV dramas where you play sick, act weak and then shock everyone with a massive comeback?"
Upon hearing this, Ren Zhong thought for a moment, looked at Sun Miao seriously and solemnly, and slowly shook his head, "Not really, it’s like there’s a voice in the dark telling me, Brother Sun, that you need my cancer cells. So I traveled across billions of light years and through time to meet you. Are you moved?"
His words were obviously nonsense, yet his tone was extraordinarily sincere and serious.
Sun Miao instinctively forgot to retort and just stared straight at Ren Zhong.
The two men with thick eyebrows and big eyes stared at each other oddly.
The atmosphere somehow became a bit...awkward.
It turned out that Sun Miao, the seasoned trash-talker, lost the upper hand in demeanor.
He turned his face away, no longer looking directly into Ren Zhong’s eyes, "Damn it, I’m not moved at all! I beg you to stop mentioning cancer, cancer, cancer all the time, alright? I really can’t handle this kind of shock. I’m begging you!"
Meanwhile, the mechanical arm had withdrawn from Ren Zhong’s knee.
The seam was beautifully done, with organic fibers densely interwoven, looking no different than real skin in color.
Beneath the organic fibers was a layer of bionic fat and various body substitutes, and further beneath, a piece of high-end bionic meniscus that reportedly wouldn’t wear out for thirty years.
In addition, some medications that Ren Zhong didn’t recognize were applied, though they were said to be good stuff.
According to Sun Miao before the surgery, in the coming half month, Ren Zhong’s wound would gradually self-heal.
Besides the meniscus, the other bionic organisms would be absorbed by the regrowing skin and muscular tissue.
Ren Zhong jumped off the bed, stepped on the ground, and tried moving his leg. There was just a slight pain, but no sense of stiffness, making it hard to believe he had just undergone major surgery.
He gave Sun Miao a thumbs-up, "Nice work."
"Of course! But don’t change the subject! Let’s make it clear, if you don’t mention this thing again, today’s on the house."
"Otherwise, how much should I pay?"
Sun Miao held up two fingers.
"Two bucks?"
"Get lost! Do you think this is some cheap brothel service? It’s two hundred! Two hundred! I used the best materials for you! The cost alone is two hundred! And that doesn’t include my workmanship! Ren Zhong, I’m begging you, be a decent person! I’m really scared of you, is that not enough?"
Ren Zhong squinted slightly, "I can agree with you, but I need a reason that convinces me."
Sun Miao, hearing this, cautiously glanced outside the door and lowered his voice, "I was a Senior Researcher at Mengdu Group. If it weren’t for my determination to pursue this research, I should’ve become a Senior Director at Mengdu Group’s R&D headquarters by now. They let me leave on the condition that I swear never to touch this project again. But swearing is meaningless. They let me go because they firmly believed I couldn’t get super-late-stage cancer cells outside. They hoped I’d change my mind. But if news got out, not only us but everyone in the town except the Citizens would die. Understand?"
Ren Zhong was silent for a moment.
"Alright. I promise you. Whether it’s for you, myself, or the scavengers in the town, I won’t mention it again."
"Thanks."
"No need to thank me."
Ren Zhong grinned, "But next time, I’m raising the price."
Sun Miao: "Huh? Next time? It’s generous enough that I’m not charging you, and now you want to raise the price? What’s your point?"
Ren Zhong: "It’s a secret."
"Whatever, anyway remember, today is the last time you get a free ride! The next time you have to pay! You have to pay!"
"Sure, no problem." Ren Zhong shrugged.
After Ren Zhong left, Sun Miao was still not happy.
Even though he had eliminated a hidden risk with just 200 Contribution Points, which was a great deal, he somehow had a sinking feeling like he stepped into a trap.
"Weird. That rascal doesn’t seem like the type to break promises. Plus, I’ve made it clear; he should know that even if he sold this info, he’d never get to spend the money, right?"
Sun Miao scratched his head, forcing himself not to overthink things.
As for killing to silence, Sun Miao had briefly considered it.
But he’s not stupid, and he knows that Ren Zhong, who has blackmailed him several times, hitting where it hurts each time, is even more cunning.
So, in Sun Miao’s imagination, devious, shameless, and insidious Ren Zhong surely had a backup plan.
Once Ren Zhong died, the backup plan would certainly activate, and what’s in store for him would inevitably be disaster.
Sun Miao had truly wronged Ren Zhong on this.
Ren Zhong wasn’t really concerned; he just found it unnecessary.
...
At 7:13 am, Ren Zhong first drove to Starfire Resource Recycling Company.