Under the cover of night, the Center Area of District 19's A-Class City was a dazzling scene of revelry and indulgence, with countless wealthy people gathering to enjoy a luxurious nightlife beyond ordinary people's imagination.
Yet in the more remote outskirts, the streetlights had broken down and gone unrepaired for years. In the dark alleys nearby, many unknown things were taking place.
An experienced driver skillfully backed a refrigerated truck carrying meat products into an abandoned warehouse.
"There isn't much cargo today, is there? The government has been cracking down pretty hard lately, so it's not very convenient for me either."
The driver who climbed out of the cab was a burly man with stubble. His swollen belly had been built up by gutter oil and cheap beer. As soon as he got out, he questioned a manager standing on the steps. The two of them clearly weren't conducting this mysterious trade for the first time.
The manager looked completely different from the driver. He wore a crisp suit and had a neatly trimmed mustache on his face. There was no emotion in his eyes. In response to the driver's question, he merely raised a hand and gestured the number six.
"Six? That's indeed fewer than before. Since we're old acquaintances, we'll follow the usual rules. No electronic transfers—cash only!"
The driver imitated him and raised five fingers.
The supervisor didn't seem to care about the difference in amount at all. With a wave of his hand, a man in his thirties handed a briefcase full of banknotes to the driver's foul-smelling palm.
"Load it up."
The driver didn't bother checking the cash in the case. As soon as he quickly opened the refrigerated cargo compartment, the warehouse workers used carts to load six burlap sacks containing the so-called "cargo," one after another.
When the driver saw that all six pieces of cargo had been loaded into the refrigerated compartment, he lit a cigarette and held it between his lips. He waved goodbye to the people behind him, then started the truck and drove toward the outskirts of the city.
After driving all the way to the city gate, he was stopped by two armed guards.
He was indeed an experienced driver and seemed to have done this many times before. The two guards on duty at that hour had already colluded with him. After he passed ten thousand yuan through the cab window, the truck was immediately allowed out of the city.
As the truck traveled toward the outskirts, something began moving strangely inside one of the six so-called cargo sacks in the jolting rear compartment. It wasn't caused by the shaking. Something inside the burlap sack was moving.
Some kind of green plant root was continuously connecting with pieces of flesh, slowly assembling them together.
However, as it fused with the flesh, its speed kept slowing down. It seemed that the green plant's life force was nearly exhausted as it helped its parasitic host recover. In the end, the body was completely reassembled, and even some missing flesh regenerated under the plant's stimulation.
The young man's intact body was wrapped inside the burlap sack. The truck's bumpy journey gradually prompted him to open his eyes.
"Zzzip!"
The zipper was torn open from the inside.
A frail, fairly handsome young man sat bolt upright from the burlap sack like a corpse rising from the dead. Naturally, he was completely naked. His pupils were slightly unfocused, and his mind was in utter confusion. Judging from his appearance, the young man was none other than Yu Jing.
When a person woke from a short period of deep sleep during a midday nap, their consciousness would occasionally remain blurred for a brief time. They might not remember where they were or even what time it was.
Yu Jing's brain, however, had previously been smashed to pieces. The reconstruction and repair of nerves belonged to a field of medicine that had yet to be conquered. Yu Jing's brain had indeed been properly restored, but all his memories had been scrambled. Countless fragmented images flashed through his mind.
--A punk-style research institute, a cold and strange girl, seven items, a cold slaughterhouse--
"The research institute's test!"
Suddenly, Yu Jing seemed to have pieced together part of his memory. When he turned his head toward the several burlap sacks placed beside him in the same position, his heart felt as though it had fallen into an icy cellar, and his breathing grew rapid.
"One, two, three, four, five!"
Yu Jing counted the burlap sacks beside him with his fingers. Including himself, there were six sacks in total. As he smelled the cold, rotten stench in the air, the cruel reality was already laid out before him.
"Why!"
Yu Jing refused to accept this reality. He went to one of the burlap sacks and looked inside. It contained a male corpse. From the face, he could make out the man's identity.
"Was it that old man?" Yu Jing felt a wave of nausea, but he didn't actually vomit.
As sack after sack was opened, not one of the corpses inside was intact. It wasn't until Yu Jing cut open the zipper of the final sack that Jiang Tian's pale face appeared. Her completely vacant pupils stared at Yu Jing without the slightest trace of life.
Yu Jing knelt before Jiang Tian's corpse. A tear slid down his cheek over his stiff, numb face.
"This money really is easy to earn. Every so often, those people bring over a pile of 'cargo' that needs to be disposed of. If I keep this up, once I've earned enough money, I'll be able to spend the rest of my life enjoying myself."
The driver drove the truck to a barren hill in the middle of nowhere. Beside where he parked were ten large pits that had already been dug. It seemed this had long become routine.
To be safe, the driver took the handgun from the drawer in the cab and carried it with him. Then he took a flashlight in his right hand and walked to the rear compartment.
"Six bodies is a little too few. I dug ten pits in advance, so I'll have to fill the rest. I wonder if there are any intact women in this batch. I still remember the cargo from three months ago."
At that thought, the driver ran his tongue around his lips. Only a pervert could wear such a lecherous smile.
With that thought in mind, the driver quickly and skillfully removed the chain from the rear doors. When he yanked the doors open, the cold air pouring out made him rub his thick arms. He shone his flashlight inside.
Under the flashlight's beam, the six burlap sacks lay normally inside, with nothing unusual about them.
The experienced driver dragged down the nearest burlap sack and cut open the zipper to check whether it contained any "good stuff."
"Damn, that's seriously disgusting."
Having done this far too many times, the driver dumped all the burlap sacks into the pits and filled them with dirt.
The second sack was next, and it was still the kind of "cargo" that killed one's appetite. The third, fourth, and fifth sacks were the same. None contained "cargo" suited to the driver's tastes.
"What a disappointment. Only one sack left."
The flashlight beam illuminated the burlap sack deep inside the cargo compartment. Carrying his last shred of anticipation, he cut open the zipper. Lying inside was the intact body of a young man.
"A man? What a shame to waste such an intact corpse."
The driver's expression changed drastically as he dragged the young man by the arm. The arm was warm—not with the temperature a dead person should have. Not to mention a corpse, even a living person couldn't possibly maintain a normal body temperature after spending so long inside a freezer.
Suddenly, the young man calmly snatched the gun from the driver's hand from behind. Pointing the muzzle at the driver's forehead, he asked, "Are you from the research institute? Where is this place?"
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