"Lu Yuan! Give me back my mother!"
A heart-wrenching shriek suddenly burst out from the girl's mouth. Her hands had somehow changed from delicate jade fingers into ghastly white claws!
The ghostly claws swung out swiftly, bringing with them a stench of rot as they flew towards Lu Yuan's face!
Lu Yuan stood still where he was, not moving an inch. As the girl pounced towards him, he calmly raised his right hand.
The girl's ghostly claws were just about to scratch Lu Yuan's face, but she felt a tingling sensation coming from her neck first.
She ignored it.
With eyes full of hatred, the girl now only wanted to slash Lu Yuan's face with her claws.
However, the tingling feeling in her neck quickly turned into a feeling of weakness throughout her body.
When her ghostly claws landed on Lu Yuan's face, they had reverted back to delicate jade hands without any strength.
The girl looked down to see a hypodermic needle inserted into her neck.
The needle had pierced her skin, and the plunger of the syringe was being slowly depressed by Lu Yuan's hand.
An unknown liquid from the syringe was being injected into her body drop by drop.
One second, two seconds, three seconds...
In the fourth second, the girl only felt Lu Yuan's entire body give off a golden glow.
In the fifth second, her world went dark and she almost collapsed to the ground, barely managing to hold onto a roadside tree to stay upright.
Lu Yuan consoled her, "Sleep, just sleep and you'll be fine."
The girl's eyes were bloodshot as she lamented in sorrow, "Lu Yuan, how could you bear to..."
"That Doctor Lu back then wasn't like this!"
Lu Yuan adjusted his glasses on the bridge of his nose and said lightly, "I've always been like this."
"People have multifaceted personalities. When facing different people, the humanity shown is also different."
"I'm actually simpler - no matter who I face, I only have two sides."
"When you were a girl polluted by toxic spiritual energy, I could do my utmost to save you."
"But now, hatred has blinded your eyes. You no longer have reverence for life. So I can only... save you once more."
"Save you from leaving this warped world."
As his words fell, Lu Yuan pulled out the syringe that was inserted into the girl's body. "Goodbye, Lin Youyou."
The girl immediately lost consciousness and collapsed.
Seeing the girl fall to the ground, Lu Yuan made no attempt whatsoever to support her.
He merely bent down to pick up a pack of heart-shaped candies that had dropped from the girl's body.
He took one out and slowly put it in his mouth to suck on it. Lu Yuan murmured to himself, "Foolish girl, she doesn't even know to change flavors..."
After eating a piece of candy, Lu Yuan put on his bluetooth earpiece.
His tone was as calm and gentle as usual, "Liu Yuan, bring a stretcher bed to the road outside the front gate."
"Okay."
Taking off the earpiece, Lu Yuan stood alone in the night breeze.
He looked up slightly, a trace of astonishment in his eyes - he didn't expect to be able to see the stars tonight.
...
One hour later, in Lu Yuan's Operating Room No.3.
Liu Yuan had pushed Lin Youyou to the door of the operating room.
Seeing Lin Youyou's serene and beautiful face, Liu Yuan felt somewhat reluctant.
She said to Lu Yuan, who had already changed into surgical scrubs, "Boss, can you really bear to do it?"
Lu Yuan put on his surgical cap and gloves, checked the freshly replaced surgical blade, with only a hint of excitement but no other intention in his eyes.
"In a doctor's eyes, in the operating room, under the scalpel..."
"All lives are equal."
In the end, Lin Youyou was still laid on Lu Yuan's Operating Table No. 3.
A perfect masterpiece was presented bare before Lu Yuan.
Same as Little Cao's treatment previously, Lu Yuan pulled a curtain on Lin Youyou's neck.
This had nothing to do with desire.
Lin Youyou's face and body were a match made in heaven. Without the curtain blocking, Lu Yuan would not bear to destroy the artistic aesthetics of this perfect body.
The cold marker drew some circled markings on Lin Youyou's chest and abdomen. A few minutes later, the scalpel entered her body.
Lu Yuan couldn't remember how many human bodies he had dissected, but for some reason, he felt a sense of guilt with the one before him now.
A sense of guilt for wasting a heavenly work of art.
But very quickly, this sense of guilt disappeared entirely.
Because he discovered that Lin Youyou's body had no heart inside.
A trace of shock flashed through Lu Yuan's eyes.
Not shock at this heartless body, but shock at the endless possibilities that this represented for the biological structure of organisms in this world.
Lu Yuan suddenly realized that even though he had dissected so many biological bodies, his understanding of the biological structure of this world was still too shallow.
Like the heartless body before him - how could a person live without a heart?
But this girl did live!
Lu Yuan froze for a few seconds at where he stood. He felt like a door to a new world had opened up to him.
Hmm, it seems more hands-on practice and understanding of biological structures would be needed in the future.
Just as Lu Yuan was lost in thought, suddenly, a jade hand pulled back the curtain separating him and Lin Youyou.
Somehow, Lin Youyou had woken up.
Or rather, she had never lost consciousness at all.
At this moment, Lin Youyou lying on the operating table had a gentle gaze like water.
Looking at Lu Yuan still holding the scalpel and staring blankly at her chest and abdomen, she said gently, "Doctor Lu, surprised? Unexpected?"
This voice was gentle and mellow, pleasing to the ear and charming.
This beautiful girl with an incision on her chest and abdomen seemed to be deliberately creating a horrific atmosphere for Lu Yuan. But -
Lu Yuan merely glanced at her and said lightly, "It is quite surprising. Your powers have grown stronger again, to the point you can use your powerful self-healing abilities to replace the function of a heart."
"Though I am rather curious, where did your heart go?"
Lin Youyou looked at Lu Yuan for a long time before saying, "My heart is in a dog's body."
Lu Yuan: "..."
"Transplanting your own heart into a canine? You're really willing to give it up."
Lin Youyou: "No choice, I was blind for a time and mistook a dog for a human."
Lu Yuan frowned. "You have poor eyesight? How did I not know? Want to consider changing your eyes? We're acquainted so I can give you a twenty percent discount, no problem."
"No need, these eyes are good enough. But Lu Yuan, can you just be a proper human being? Is that so hard?"
Lu Yuan put his gloves back on and stood by the operating table, saying solemnly, "A human must have a heart."
"Let me ask one last time, tell me, where did your heart go?"
At this moment, Lu Yuan's gaze turned icy and piercing.
Tears welled up once more in Lin Youyou's eyes. Suddenly, her entire temperament changed.
She became dispirited and crestfallen.
"Since you've already guessed, why keep asking and stabbing at my heart?"
Lu Yuan's heart suddenly ached. "It's your mother..."
Lin Youyou slowly nodded her head. She nodded very slowly, as if there was an iron weight on her chin.
"Why didn't you come look for me?"
"That was my mother, do you understand? Ask you to kill her?"
"So today, you came to my doorstep to..."
"I hate my warped abilities. After you killed my mother, I tried every means to end it all, but I survived each time."
"So I went to the deserted wilderness outside the city, looking to force my way into a polluted area. "
"But I met Little Cao instead, she was so kind. I sought death yet she tried every way to stop me from dying. So I could only come looking for you."
Lu Yuan had a very thoughtful look on his face, "No wonder when I saw you today, there was not a hint of life in your eyes."
The hot tears flowing from Lin Youyou's eyes gradually turned blood red, and her voice was full of grief and sorrow: "Dr. Lu, I am a girl whose heart was eaten alive by her own mother. I'm so miserable..."
"Please, just let my journey end here, okay?"
"Just like you said today, save me and let me leave, Dr. Lu. This world is so cold, I'm begging you..."
"Okay!"
Lu Yuan nodded and agreed very readily.
"But before that, first let me do a few heart experiments on you. Liu Yuan's side is already prepared, I'll go get them now. Please wait a moment."
Lin Youyou: "..."