[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-notes-on-kraft-anomalous-studies":3,"chapter-notes-on-kraft-anomalous-studies-notes-on-kraft-anomalous-studies-chapter-34":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"chinese","Notes on Kraft Anomalous Studies",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},2283512,4467,"Chapter 34: Chapter Thirty-Two: Just Once. Just This Once","notes-on-kraft-anomalous-studies-chapter-34",34,"\u003Cp>“What?” Kraft didn’t follow Lu Xiusi’s line of thought. His mind was still stuck on how fast the surgery needed to be—he hadn’t snapped out of it yet.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I’m saying Professor Luo Moluo is wrong. He understands the four humors and pharmacology well, but that’s outdated.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lu Xiusi glanced again at the door. He didn’t want to say it outright—this should be enough for Kraft to understand his meaning.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yes, in the traditional four-humors theory, inducing unconsciousness requires exhausting either red or white fluid—correct. But haven’t we still got another fluid no one has ever found?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He raised his hand and held it before Kraft. Days ago, this hand had several red spots—remnants from a reckless experiment.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“You mean black fluid?” Kraft snapped awake, his gaze locking onto Lu Xiusi’s face. “I thought I made it clear enough—we shouldn’t touch that thing.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Why?” Lu Xiusi met Kraft’s eyes without flinching, as if trying to dig out the reason behind his fear of black fluid.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Kraft thought Professor Karlman’s experiments were unreasonable; Lu Xiusi thought Kraft’s excessive caution was irrational.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In his view, black fluid perfectly met their current needs: just a tiny diluted dose could render someone unconscious for a full day, unresponsive even to needle pricks, with no memory of what happened afterward.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Because it… isn’t safe.” Kraft fell silent—this explanation couldn’t even convince himself. “We haven’t even confirmed it’s truly ‘black fluid,’ have we? We just call it that, right?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He couldn’t explain to Lu Xiusi what his intuition and instincts told him. Should he say he’d sensed a tiny fluid was connected to something incomprehensible to humans, something that lured living beings to touch it? Such words belonged only in his mind—speaking them would make him sound even more unbelievable.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“We can’t rule out it might have harmful effects that take longer to manifest. Professor Karlman himself said absolute secrecy is required, didn’t he?” Kraft added.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He instinctively felt its outward appearance hid deeper reasons—he dared not touch it further until he understood them. To silence Lu Xiusi, he even invoked Professor Karlman.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lu Xiusi strongly disagreed. He pointed to his own nose. “Only the living have a chance to worry about long-term effects. If I’m not an exception, we won’t even discuss this for at least ten days.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I know this isn’t the time to reveal this great discovery—but wasn’t the whole point of finding it to advance medicine? Are we just going to hide it away for secrecy’s sake?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lu Xiusi spoke with rising emotion. He’d misunderstood Kraft—he thought Kraft opposed him not because of black fluid’s inherent danger, but because of the professor’s orders.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“No, I didn’t mean that at all…” Kraft had never, not even subconsciously, considered taking black fluid out of the basement again.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>When he’d been considering anesthesia earlier, he’d only thought of agents he already knew—what could be made now, or what plants might serve as natural anesthetics. He hadn’t once considered something labeled “unknown” and “dangerous.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Now, looking back, Lu Xiusi’s argument made real sense.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Long-lasting effective anesthesia, pain that can’t rouse the patient, no intraoperative awareness—Lu Xiusi had shown no side effects in the ten days since he drank it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>With this, surgical success rates would skyrocket—from nearly impossible to plausible.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As for future side effects? We’ll deal with those in the future. Worst case? Death. But death on the operating table today is worse than death later. Best case? This dosage hasn’t crossed the threshold for any special effect—based on his observation of Lu Xiusi, it’s entirely possible.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lu Xiusi watched Kraft’s expression soften, his eyebrows gradually relaxing—from tense to thoughtful.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Once. Just this once.” Kraft said it—to Lu Xiusi, and to himself.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He remembered that night a few days ago, when he’d firmly written in his notebook: “Keep distance. Keep sealed. Do not touch unless necessary.” Now, suddenly, “necessary” had arrived.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Kraft sighed. After this, there’d likely be another pile of mess to clean up. “How do we explain its origin? No one will be curious about something like this.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Say it’s a family secret remedy?” Lu Xiusi replied instantly. “A unique relic passed down from an unknown ancestor, recipe lost, only this one dose remains.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A familiar phrase—likely inspired by Kraft’s “family medical tradition”—but it was a terrible excuse. A noble family’s heirloom remedy, its last drop given to a tavern owner’s daughter? It insulted everyone’s intelligence.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I suggest you think of something better,” Kraft rubbed his forehead. “But we can worry about that later. Right now, let’s prepare the dilution.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Together?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Quickly. After this, we still need to prepare other things—they might not be simpler than this.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>…\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>…\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wearing the same bird-mask from before, the two returned to the secret lab. As soon as they entered, Kraft opened the wall cabinet and checked the liquid level against the marked scratch—it hadn’t changed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lu Xiusi took a pear-shaped ceramic cup from the lower shelf—the same one they’d used to mix the dilution before.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The cup, wide-bodied with a narrow mouth, was hard to clean but prevented spills, and had a small triangular spout-like structure at the rim for pouring.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He filled it with water to four-fifths full, gently shook it to confirm no splash would occur during stirring, then prepared to dip a small metal rod into the black fluid and add it to the water.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Use this. Just a touch—no droplets clinging to the rod.” Lu Xiusi handed the rod to Kraft. “Should we add a bit more? We only tested needle pricks before.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“No. Children aren’t miniature adults—especially a three-year-old. Not reducing the dose is already overestimating.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Kraft peeled off the wax seal on the bottle’s mouth, pulled out the wooden stopper, and extended the thin rod into the small glass bottle, carefully approaching the liquid’s surface.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Looking down from the mouth, his blurred vision showed the liquid at the bottom, utterly still. The candlelight passing through the glass was swallowed by its surface. The smoothness vanished, replaced by a lightless, profound black.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It carved a jarring, stubborn void in his vision, faint yet persistent, issuing a silent invitation to touch.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>From this angle, Kraft began to feel it was a deep well. Faint, indistinct voices drifted from the other side. He gripped the rod tightly, feeling it would slip from his fingers into that opening, falling into another world.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The rod’s tip pressed into the liquid, shattering its dark surface, sparking a fleeting, fine ripple. Too much force struck the bottle’s bottom with a startlingly sharp crack.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Be careful—I think it’s not that sturdy,” Lu Xiusi moved the ceramic cup onto the table before Kraft. He’d nearly thought Kraft had pierced the glass bottle.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Sorry. Slip of the hand.” Kraft lifted the rod, shook off excess black fluid inside the bottle, then dipped the rod—now coated with a thin film of liquid—into the ceramic cup. He resealed the glass bottle with the wooden stopper and reapplied wax to the neck.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“So just stir it?” The metal rod swirled a few times in the cup. The minuscule black fluid dissolved completely into the water. Now it was exactly what they needed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Yes. This stuff dissolves easily in water.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Under candlelight, the water in the cup remained perfectly clear—no color change at all. Impossible to distinguish by sight, and the previous seductive pull was gone. Just an ordinary glass of plain water.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yet it had become the core of the world’s first anesthetic surgery. Lu Xiusi would pour a single sip into the prepared “family heirloom” vial, and let Lise drink it all—no trace left.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This small copper vial was Lu Xiusi’s personal collection: less than half a palm wide, its exterior inlaid with a stone resembling turquoise, meant to pass as an “ancient family relic.” No one in Hegang would bother to authenticate it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“What was this bottle originally for?” Kraft instinctively reached to stroke his beard in thought—only to touch the bird’s beak of his mask.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Bought to carry spices, but never found any suitable. So it’s been empty.” Lu Xiusi tilted the ceramic cup, pouring his envisioned “one sip” into the copper vial. “I think it’s half an antique. We’ll use this from now on.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“From now on? There won’t be a ‘from now on,’ Lu Xiusi. Just this once. I swear—if I ever do something this stupid again, I’ll stand upside down in a tavern and drink three cups.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Which one? Agreeing to take Lise’s case, or using black fluid?” Lu Xiusi capped the copper vial, finishing his task.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Hard to say.” Logically, he shouldn’t have touched either—accepting a case solvable only by extraordinary means, or breaking his vow never to touch black fluid.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Kraft returned the glass bottle and the capped ceramic cup to the wall cabinet, shut the door, and sighed. Today’s sighs alone equaled half a month’s worth—he sensed more were coming.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In this world, things always follow one rule: zero times, or countless times. Saying “just this once” to Lu Xiusi is fine—it won’t fool himself.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>There’s never any accident. Everything happens for an inherent reason. Without Lise, without Lu Xiusi, he would eventually have encountered another patient needing surgery—and thought of black fluid’s effect.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I resolve to devote all my strength to relieving human suffering.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Hm?” Lu Xiusi heard Kraft murmuring under his breath—soft as a mosquito’s buzz, the tone and pronunciation not of Nors.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Nothing. Just an oath I made long ago.” Kraft seemed steadier now. “Don’t worry about me. Go prepare the other things. If there’s a god of medicine—or any god—hurry and bless me while there’s still time.”\u003C\u002Fp>",1597,"2026-06-20T02:15:55.761Z",1,"Qwen3-Next 80B","6cf49b38eca082b95ff467d59440885c7d5be81b99fd856255a915ddc03c0732","notes-on-kraft-anomalous-studies-chapter-35","notes-on-kraft-anomalous-studies-chapter-33",406,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fnotes-on-kraft-anomalous-studies-cover.jpg"]