Chapter 5: That Girl

After leaving school, Ding Huan immediately sped up and turned onto a road he rarely took, remembering something important.

In his previous life, it was also today that he felt deeply disappointed for failing to stay on as a tutor at Heluo Upper Martial University.

Even when Ding Ding Jie kicked him out of the Baoyu Group's inheritance line, he hadn't felt this desolate, so he drank some alcohol at a small eatery near the school.

Just as he stepped out of the eatery after finishing his drink, a car hit him, and immediately he heard someone shout, "Quick, take him to the hospital!"

But when he woke up, he wasn't in the hospital—he was beside a trash pile.

At that time, both his legs had been broken; that wasn't the worst—worse still, his eyes had been gouged out.

If not for that old trash collector, he would have had no future from that day onward.

On an Earth ravaged by gene mutations and ferocious beasts, no one cared if a trivial student died—even if a whole town was slaughtered by beasts, it would only get a few minutes on the evening news.

After picking him up, the old man didn't say where he took him.

He only remembered the old man saying, "This kid is one of the rare gene affinity bodies—affinity level definitely over eighty percent. If you're taking him, price is one thousand Alliance Credits."

At the time, Ding Huan couldn't speak, but he heard every word clearly—he knew he wasn't a gene affinity body at all.

A gene affinity body wasn't just someone who could fuse with the vast majority of gene serums.

It was also someone who, when fusing with faulty gene serums, would only briefly show non-fusion symptoms and had a far lower chance of death than ordinary people when fusing genes.

In plain terms, he was perfect for being a test subject.

That made him extremely valuable—nowadays, gene serums were flooding the market, but truly effective ones were scarce. Every time major gene research institutes developed a new gene serum, they needed someone to test it.

Every valuable gene serum that reached the market was a true money-printing machine.

Gene serum testing was best done with a gene affinity body.

A gene affinity body could rapidly reveal the flaws in a gene serum, helping researchers correct it in the shortest possible time and drastically shorten the development cycle for qualified serums.

To buy a true gene affinity body for one thousand Alliance Credits? That was a fantasy. So even though his legs were broken and his eyes gone, he was immediately taken from the old man's hands.

Ding Huan suddenly thought of that old man—the trash collector was no ordinary person, because later he learned he truly was a gene affinity body.

A taxi approached from afar, and Ding Huan flagged it down.

Whoever wanted to kill him, whoever that old man was—he had to leave here immediately.

"Where to?" the driver asked.

"Qianjiang Gate," Ding Huan said.

The trip from where he got in to Qianjiang Gate Restaurant took twenty minutes; just before the taxi reached Qianjiang Gate, Ding Huan suddenly said, "Driver, stop here—I'll walk the rest of the way. I need to buy something first."

When it came to matters of his own life, Ding Huan had no choice but to be cautious.

After getting out of the taxi, Ding Huan quickly entered a street with a decent number of people; an hour and a half later, he arrived at Yujiang University.

……

"You're here to report for duty?" A middle-aged woman in Yujiang University's Personnel Office stared blankly at Ding Huan, completely baffled by what alien he might be.

Yujiang University couldn't even pay salaries anymore—it was truly on the verge of collapse—and yet someone still came to report?

Ding Huan placed his identification documents and assignment letter before the woman and smiled brightly.

"Sister, look—can I report with this assignment letter?"

The woman unconsciously touched her face—sister? This sunny, handsome young man calling her sister actually pleased her.

She glanced briefly at what Ding Huan had shown her and said,

"Do you even need an assignment letter to enter Yujiang University now? With your Heluo Upper Martial University diploma, you're guaranteed a tutor position."

"But young man, I must be clear—school funds are tight right now. You won't get any salary for now."

Not just Ding Huan—even she herself hadn't received a salary in months. The teachers and staff who remained at Yujiang University either stayed out of sentiment or had nowhere else to go.

Most others were just waiting for the day Yujiang University merged into another university, so they could naturally become staff there too.

"Do you have a place to live?" Ding Huan knew he wouldn't get any salary here.

"There's plenty of housing—you can eat in the cafeteria too, but it's not free," the woman said, handing him the employment form.

Registration went smoothly—no matter how desirable Yujiang University once was, no one would show up to report right after graduating.

Because Yujiang University had so many empty rooms, Ding Huan could even move into a row house. Of course, these row houses came in lines of over a dozen.

Yujiang University ranked last in every subject, but in terms of area, it could still rank among the top ten nationwide.

That's because Yujiang University was located in the suburbs of Heluo City, not far from Qianluo Mountain—had Yujiang University wished, it could have expanded freely toward Qianluo Mountain.

That's exactly what it did: whenever its budget allowed, it expanded massively toward Qianluo Mountain every few years.

Vast rows of villas and standalone courtyards were built to attract talent from all fields.

Unfortunately, Earth's environment changed—plants and animals mutated, ferocious beasts ran rampant—and all of Yujiang University's bright prospects collapsed overnight.

Across the globe, countless villages were wiped out by beasts; humans began clustering together. Every city, big or small, had to build protective walls if it still existed.

Smaller cities might have real walls, but medium-sized cities like Heluo used laser nets and cutting-ray defenses.

Yujiang University now sat on the city's edge—though protected by walls, it would be the first target if a beast surge erupted.

Combined with poor management, the few talents Yujiang University had managed to attract all fled, leaving countless buildings vacant.

……

After the middle-aged woman who brought Ding Huan to the courtyard left, he finally examined his small yard—it was truly tiny, no more than twenty square meters.

Inside the house, it was a one-bedroom, one-living-room, one-kitchen, one-bathroom layout. There was a bed and blankets, and the kitchen still had pots, pans, bowls, and chopsticks left by previous occupants. For Ding Huan, this was enough.

Sitting on the bed, Ding Huan finally let out a deep breath—at least today, he wouldn't suffer the same tragedy as his previous life, with his legs broken and eyes gouged out. His tense nerves relaxed.

Once his mind relaxed, Ding Huan couldn't stop wondering—who in his previous life had wanted to kill him?

At first, he'd always assumed it was Ding Ding Jie, but after repeated reflection, he felt Ding Ding Jie had no reason to kill him.

Ding Ding Jie was adopted by his father; after his father disappeared, Ding Ding Jie had legally seized control of the Baoyu Group—killing him seemed pointless.

But who was that trash-collecting old man? In this era, for a stranger to rescue an unknown person from a trash pile? That was pure fantasy.

Of course, the old man hadn't saved him—he'd simply sold him to some unknown organization.

What organization bought him from the scavenger old man? Why did he wake up in a branch of the Gene Alliance?

Did that organization buy him and then resell him to the Gene Alliance? And how did the old man know he was an Alien Gene Affinity Body?

A flood of questions that had haunted him for a long time swirled in his mind, leaving Ding Huan's thoughts momentarily chaotic.

He would not thank the Gene Alliance for saving him—they saved him because he was an Alien Gene Affinity Body. After being rescued, he could die at any moment in an even more horrific way.

In his past life, in this very Gene Alliance, Ding Huan had seen too many tragic fates of test subjects who failed gene fusion: their bodies exploding, skulls rupturing, flesh rotting…

For a gene test subject, dying peacefully might be the best fate of all.

Ding Huan's thoughts suddenly halted, stopping at the voice in his mind that he could never forget…

"After I die, please donate my eyes to him—he's still so young. Let him see the beauty of the world through my eyes…"

Ding Huan clenched his fists unconsciously; he didn't even know her name, her origin, or what she looked like.

But that voice, filled with despair yet tinged with hope, was forever etched into the depths of his memory.

It was half a year after he was sent to the Gene Alliance, after his leg amputation surgery and nearly full recovery.

At that time, he still lay in the Gene Alliance's laboratory. Even though his severed legs had not fully healed and he still had no eyes, he was still subjected to gene serum fusion at regular intervals.

Despite enduring multiple gene fusion trials, Ding Huan's body had suffered no damage—but his heart had long since died.

Almost every day during this period, someone died a horrific death from failed gene fusion; perhaps the next would be Ding Huan himself.

After more than half a year, one day Ding Huan heard several people enter the laboratory.

Ding Huan was used to this. Aside from his own stubborn resilience, no one undergoing gene fusion trials here lasted more than a month. Someone coming meant a new subject had arrived for gene fusion.

Among those entering seemed to be a woman; upon seeing his condition, her voice trembled with tears.

"Why are you so cruel? You not only broke his legs, but gouged out his eyes too—he's still so young…"

No one answered her. She hadn't even considered that she herself was a tragic soul, destined to be sacrificed by this laboratory at any moment.

She was miserable herself, yet couldn't bear to see another's suffering.

Perhaps remembering her own wretched fate, she felt a resonance within her upon seeing Ding Huan.

For the first time, Ding Huan's numb heart was stirred. Before this, he had known that every classmate and friend who associated with him did so only for his family background.

Aside from his mother, whom he never knew, the only person in this world who truly cared for him was his father, Ding Baishan. Today he learned that someone unknown in this world wept for him.

Ding Huan only hoped this girl, like him, here for gene trials, would survive.

Unfortunately, fate did not favor her. Like so many others who failed gene fusion, she died on her first attempt.

He didn't know what gene she was tested with, but he clearly felt her despair and agony as she died.

Even so, she still whispered tremblingly, "After I die, please donate my eyes to him—he's still so young. Let him see the beauty of the world through my eyes…"

Everyone knew the "him" she meant was Ding Huan. Ding Huan had never seen her face, but from her voice alone, he knew she too was very young.

Even Ding Huan's hollow eyes grew moist. In this world, was there really a stranger who would give him her eyes?

From that moment, that voice was forever etched into the deepest part of Ding Huan's soul—it was the most precious sound of his life.

From that moment on, Ding Huan resolved to live—not just for himself, but for that girl he had never seen and never knew by name. He would live to see the beauty she spoke of, through her eyes, in this crude world.

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(End of Chapter)