The Beautiful, Strong, and Tragic Female Lead is Mine [Transmigration Into a Novel] - Chapter 51

“Potions and radiation, you can mix and match them, try all sorts of combinations.”

Zhou Quan was still talking glibly. “Our potions have all undergone preliminary trials. There’s no reason they shouldn’t have any effect. Young people, don’t always be so timid and afraid of losses.”

As he spoke, he walked up to Ning Ximing and reached out to put a hand on her shoulder, as if they were very familiar.

Ning Ximing took a step back without a change in expression, dodging his hand. “I understand.”

When they returned to the rest area, it was already 11 p.m.

Before they even got there, Xie Zhitian saw He Yuzhu pacing back and forth in the prison-like cubicle, looking anxious. Seeing the two of them return, she hurried over. “Are you okay? Why are you back so late?”

Xie Zhitian smiled at her. “Don’t worry, we’re fine.”

She glanced at the area outside the bars, where the guards had already left, their figures quickly disappearing into the dark corridor.

He Yuzhu lowered her voice. “What did they make you do today? Was it dangerous?”

Luo Yang said softly, “It was alright.”

She recounted the process of administering the medicine to the xenomorphs that day, of course, leaving out the part where Xie Zhitian secretly added the extra dose.

He Yuzhu’s eyes widened in surprise. “No effect? You’re really lucky. The previous xenomorphs were very sensitive to the medicine. Even a little bit would cause a reaction. It became a psychological trauma for us.”

Xie Zhitian simply admitted, “We were indeed lucky.”

She paused, and then said, “But just now, Zhou Quan came.”

“Hiss.” He Yuzhu gasped, as if a painful memory had been triggered. “Why did he come? Let me tell you, nothing good happens when he shows up. He always has a smile on his face, but the tasks he assigns can be a nightmare.”

Xie Zhitian was thoughtful. “I felt that too.”

The things Zhou Quan said in front of everyone just now sounded high and mighty, and even had a tone of concern. But in reality, every word spoke to a cruel reality: use the injured and inexperienced newbies to test the waters with the xenomorphs first, because no one would feel bad if these two types of people died.

She turned to the side, took out a communicator from her personal space, and mentally sorted through the events of the day, using concise language to report to Tang Zhuoran.

Tang Zhuoran replied instantly.

Xie Zhitian scanned the string of numbers and quickly deciphered the message: “Received, everything is going well on our end, wait for my signal to act.”

Another message quickly followed: “We’ll get the roster of for District 7 tomorrow.”

Xie Zhitian’s eyes lit up. She had asked Tang Zhuoran to look into Ning Ximing. She didn’t expect the other person to be so capable and get such important information so quickly. The roster contains some basic information about them, so they could not only learn more about Ning Ximing but also work with Tang Zhuoran to see if there were any other people of interest in this underground palace.

Moreover, if she were to only investigate Ning Ximing, it might raise suspicions in District 7, and Tang Zhuoran’s purpose would be easily exposed. But if they investigated the entire population, the scope would be much wider, making it difficult to figure out who their target was.

Xie Zhitian replied to Tang Zhuoran, “Got it, you guys be careful too.”

She knew that Tang Zhuoran’s goal was not only to stop Zhou Quan’s plan, but also to rescue all the in the underground palace and ensure everyone’s safety as much as possible. This was a huge project and would take a lot of effort and time to prepare.

He Yuzhu asked from the side, “Did Zhou Quan make things difficult for you? What did he make you do?”

Luo Yang replied, “He told us to speed up the progress and add more people…”

Before she could finish, footsteps suddenly echoed in the corridor again. The few people immediately fell silent and looked in the direction of the metal bars.

They saw two guards each escorting a girl towards them.

The few of them stopped at the door, and one of the guards said, “Which one is He Yuzhu? Come out.”

He Yuzhu was stunned. “What’s wrong?”

“Your room is being changed due to work schedule adjustments.”

The guard yawned and answered impatiently, “Just come out when I tell you to. Why so many questions?”

Xie Zhitian looked up and saw that the two girls being escorted had obvious signs of injury.

One of them had a ponytail, a pale face, and looked listless. Her legs and arms were wrapped in thick bandages, and her clothes were stained with dried blood.

The other looked particularly badly hurt, with a gruesome scar on her cheek. Although it had already scabbed over, the terrifying dark red scar was still shocking, running from her forehead to her chin, essentially destroying her entire face. Her hair was short and uneven, as if it had been cut in a hurry.

Xie Zhitian suddenly remembered what the guards had said in the dining hall during the day.

Was this girl the one who was disfigured by Ning Ximing?

He Yuzhu didn’t know what was going on, but she didn’t dare to ask any more questions. She slowly got up and walked towards the door. Before leaving, she looked back at Xie Zhitian and Luo Yang several times, her face full of worry.

Xie Zhitian winked at her, signaling her not to worry.

The two girls were roughly pushed inside, and the cage door was closed again.

“Commander Zhou said that starting tomorrow, you four will be in charge of the third step of the xenomorph modifications. Living together makes it easier to manage and for you to communicate.”

One of the guards said condescendingly, his tone acting as if he was the commander of the district himself. “I’m warning you, don’t try any tricks, or you’ll be sorry!”

Xie Zhitian sneered inwardly. There must be more than just these two injured. Zhou Quan sent people with such terrible injuries over, and the warning was self-explanatory: if they don’t obey, they will end up like them.

But she didn’t show it on the surface, just obediently responded, “Got it, we’ll do our job well.”

Seeing her obedient demeanor, the two guards looked pleased and then turned to leave.

Luo Yang saw them walk away and got up to walk over to the two new girls. She asked gently, “How are you two? Are your wounds okay?”

The two girls looked at each other. “We’re fine, thank you.”

Luo Yang said, “My name is Qiao Yu.” She then pointed to Xie Zhitian. “She’s Su Qing.”

Xie Zhitian added, “We both just arrived here last night, and we’re still a bit confused. How long have you been here?”

The girl with the ponytail replied, “Almost a week.”

She also introduced herself simply. Her name was Zheng Lin, and the disfigured girl’s name was Liu Yunna. They were both originally from District 9. They were attracted by the high salary but didn’t expect to fall into the clutches of a demon.

Zheng Lin regretted it. “I wish I hadn’t been so greedy. My family passed away early, so I always felt like I had no one to rely on and wanted to earn more money for a sense of security.”

Xie Zhitian comforted her, “You can’t blame yourself. Who would have thought that a district’s public recruitment would have a problem?”

Zheng Lin looked at Liu Yunna with guilt. “Nana didn’t want to come, but I insisted she come with me. If it weren’t for me, Nana wouldn’t have been disfigured.”

Luo Yang said, “Let me see.”

She leaned in close to Liu Yunna and carefully examined the wound on her face. She quickly concluded, “You don’t have keloid-prone skin. Be careful not to get it wet or dirty these next few days. I have some medicine here that you can use first. After the wound heals, get some restorative treatment, and it should be able to recover completely without any visible scars.”

Liu Yunna smiled softly, and the gruesome wound made her smile look strange and desolate. “Thank you, but I probably won’t have the chance to get restorative treatment.”

When she learned that Zhou Quan had arranged for her to participate in the third step of the experiment, she knew everything was over. The danger of this experiment was known to everyone, and she was just a sacrificial pawn to lead the way.

“Don’t say that. The matter isn’t over yet, and there might be a turning point.”

Xie Zhitian wanted to comfort Liu Yunna a bit more, but looking at the scar on her face and the unhealed wounds on her body, she felt that words were powerless. However, at this stage, she couldn’t reveal anything to the other party. The more people who knew the plan, the greater the risk of exposure.

She asked in a low voice, “Was the wound on your face from Ning Ximing?”

Liu Yunna nodded. “It was Sister Ximing.”

When she mentioned Ning Ximing, there was no hatred in her eyes, and she was even willing to use the term “Sister Ximing.”

Liu Yunna saw Xie Zhitian’s surprise and took the initiative to explain, “I don’t hate Sister Ximing. She’s a good person.”

She had been beautiful since she was a child and was the center of attention wherever she went. This face was like a double-edged sword, giving her a lot of privileges but also showing her a lot of malice.

On the second day of her arrival at the underground palace, she heard a few male guards discussing her behind her back.

“Damn, this new broad is so beautiful, she looks like a celebrity.”

“Yeah, that chest, that butt, tsk tsk.”

“You guys better not get any ideas. Commander Zhou has his eye on her. He said he’s going to stay overnight in the underground palace tomorrow and have her serve him.”

“Tsk, Zhou Quan tells us not to touch , saying it’ll interfere with work, but he himself isn’t so proper.”

“How can you be the same as him? If you were in his position, you’d enjoy that fortune too.”

…

Liu Yunna gritted her teeth in hatred, but there was nothing she could do. She spent the entire day thinking about how to get rid of all this, and even had the thought of ending her own life.

Although someone was watching her while she worked, if she was fast enough, she could still manage to kill herself. But she was also afraid that her actions would implicate her other companions, so she hesitated to act.

Liu Yunna was preoccupied, and she made several mistakes at work. But she didn’t expect that on that very night, Ning Ximing said that she was distracted and not working seriously, and that she would be punished in public as a warning.

Before she could even react, she was already pushed to the open space in the middle of the crowd. Ning Ximing struck with a heavy hand, and a whip strike directly made her unable to open her eyes. Blood flowed down from her forehead, and her vision turned crimson.

The long whip with barbs continued to lash her body, and the burning pain made her body uncontrollably convulse.

But Liu Yunna felt relieved, and even a little relieved.

As expected, when Zhou Quan saw her like this the next day, he immediately lost interest. Moreover, everyone knew that she was not in a good state at work yesterday, and it made perfect sense for Ning Ximing to punish her.

So the matter was dropped, and nothing more was said.

After listening to Liu Yunna’s words, Xie Zhitian fell into thought.

If Liu Yunna’s guess was correct, then Ning Ximing was actually trying to protect  the underground palace, and her position was the same as theirs. Why did she get involved then? Was she tempted by the same benefits as the other?

She asked Liu Yunna, “Are you sure Ning Ximing hurt you to protect you? Is it possible that she didn’t know Zhou Quan was going to do something to you, and punishing you was just a coincidence?”

“It wasn’t a coincidence, I’m very sure.”

Liu Yunna shook her head and asked a question, “Do you know how many people have died in this underground palace?”

Xie Zhitian was silent for a moment and said a number, “5?”

She actually thought that 5 was a conservative estimate. In such a cruel environment, there would always be insubordinate who would be killed, or those who died from xenomorph attacks.

“You’re wrong. No one has died yet. Ning Ximing has punished many people, but they were all flesh wounds and never once did she injure any internal organs. And no matter what, she would always put herself in the most dangerous position.”

Liu Yunna’s tone was a bit emotional. She looked into both of their eyes. “If I’m not mistaken, Sister Ximing was also at the third step experiment today, right?”

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