Top-secret experiment

Variation

Under the protection of the police, Bao Shuai returned home to pack a few clothes, and then followed Officer Tang to a police sanitarium on the outskirts of town.

“This is a suite. The room inside is your bedroom, and this side is the bathroom. There are three teams of criminal police providing 24-hour protection around you. If you feel something unusual, just press this button, and within ten seconds, the people protecting you will arrive at this room,” Officer Tang briefly explained the surroundings, then handed a wrist-like communicator to Bao Shuai and was about to leave.

“Officer Tang!” Bao Shuai called out to him.

Seeing Bao Shuai’s serious expression, Officer Tang was slightly startled. “What is it?”

Bao Shuai stared into Officer Tang’s eyes and asked, “Officer Tang, what case have I gotten involved in?”

After a moment’s thought, Officer Tang replied, “We have protocols and cannot disclose case details. Just stay here and relax.”

“Officer Tang, you brought me to this place, claiming it’s for protection, but it feels more like being in prison. I must know what my situation is now, or I’d rather not accept your protection,” Bao Shuai insisted.

Officer Tang locked eyes with him. Through his thick glasses, he could see Bao Shuai’s determination. After a moment’s silence, he sat down on the sofa.

“The case, it’s a missing persons case,” Officer Tang began.

“A missing persons case? Officer Tang, are you joking? Do we need three teams of criminal police protecting someone just for a few human traffickers?” Bao Shuai responded, confused.

“It’s not as simple as you think. Sit down, and I’ll explain,” Officer Tang invited him to sit on the sofa. He then lit a cigarette, took a deep drag, and continued.

“The case began when a special police officer mysteriously disappeared while visiting his family. This officer was a former special forces soldier, highly skilled, and sharp-minded. His disappearance was highly unusual.”

“How did he disappear?” Bao Shuai asked.

“At the time, he had just completed an important mission, and the special police team gave him a half-month leave to visit his parents in the city. On the way, he received a call for an urgent task, asking him to return immediately.”

“He didn’t answer the call?”

“He did answer. Not only that, but he could also hear his parents’ voices on the other end, and at the time, the whole family was having dinner. After receiving the order, he immediately returned to his room to pack his things and prepare to leave, but then he never came out.”

“He never came out?” Bao Shuai asked, astonished.

“That’s right, he disappeared from his room! From the moment he answered the phone until his parents discovered he was gone, the whole process took less than ten minutes. There was no strange sound, no signs of a struggle—just a highly skilled officer vanishing into thin air,” Officer Tang explained.

“Uh… a magic trick? Officer Tang, are you messing with me?” Bao Shuai looked at Officer Tang skeptically, almost visibly writing “I don’t believe you” on his face.

Seeing his disbelief, Officer Tang gave him a disdainful glance. “If we’re talking about strange things, I think you’ve got the edge here.”

Thinking back to the mysterious disappearance from that night, Bao Shuai was instantly speechless.

Officer Tang, seeing that Bao Shuai had no response, took a satisfied drag of his cigarette and continued, “Although the case is very strange, because of the missing person’s special identity, the higher-ups took it very seriously. We immediately began investigating the case, but found nothing.”

“As luck would have it, when we were at a dead end, and the pressure was mounting, a criminal officer, repeatedly reviewing the case file, started to develop an obsession. He kept thinking that one line of text stood out as odd.”

“What line?” Bao Shuai asked.

“It said that according to the missing man’s parents, he had a nightmare the night before he disappeared, seeing a strange red X.”

“A red X?!” Bao Shuai exclaimed, his mind racing as the strange red “X” from that night flooded back to him, vivid and unsettling.

Officer Tang ignored Bao Shuai’s shock and continued talking, “In the end, there was nothing else to do. That criminal officer, treating the strange red X as a clue, cross-checked it with our database. We didn’t expect much, but when we checked, we were shocked.”

“What's unusual about the red X?” Bao Shuai asked, still trying to piece everything together.

“Nothing too strange about the red X itself, but…”

At this point, Officer Tang extinguished his cigarette, his expression growing even more serious.

“According to our investigation, in just the past five years, there have been twenty similar missing persons cases across the country, all with descriptions from the families or friends of the missing, saying they had seen a strange red X.”

“What?!” Bao Shuai sprang up from his seat, his face shifting through various expressions."Don’t get too excited, let me finish," Officer Tang urged, signaling for Bao Shuai to sit down again.

“We found through investigation that all these similar cases are eerily alike. The missing people had no known enemies, didn’t get lost—they just vanished without warning. The only common factor is that they all saw the red X, and there were no other clues. Based on the method of the crime, we suspected that all these cases were committed by the same person or group. But this theory was quickly overturned.”

“Why?” Bao Shuai asked.

“Because according to our records, the earliest similar case occurred in 1952…”

“What? More than sixty years ago?” Bao Shuai was stunned.

Officer Tang nodded helplessly. "Yes. If it were the same person committing these crimes, that person would be in their seventies or eighties now. How could they make a highly skilled officer disappear? And if it were the same group, they wouldn’t have been able to commit crimes for sixty years without leaving any trace."

“So how do we explain the similarities between the cases?”

Officer Tang shook his head. "We can’t explain it. You’re the only one who has seen the red X and hasn’t disappeared, so we have to find the answer through you."

“You want to use me to identify the suspects?” Bao Shuai asked.

Officer Tang nodded with a smile.

“But... are you saying that even with this protection, they would still dare to kidnap me?” Bao Shuai asked incredulously.

Officer Tang sighed. "I’m afraid so. Including the special police officer, there have been four people in the city in the past year who saw the strange red X and then disappeared. They were either in busy areas or with family or friends. So, even with tight protection, we believe the criminals won’t easily give up. You need to be mentally prepared for that."

Hearing that he was still in danger, Bao Shuai’s face turned pale. He had a nagging feeling that something was wrong with Officer Tang’s words, but he couldn’t quite figure out what.

Suddenly, a voice flashed through his mind: “This evening, a dismembered body was found near People's Park in the city. Police confirm it is likely the fourth case of the 522 serial dismemberment case…”

“Fourth... four people disappeared…”

Bao Shuai froze. “Officer Tang, the 522 serial dismemberment case has discovered four dismembered bodies, and the missing persons case also involves four people. The night before yesterday, I stumbled upon the scene of one of the dismemberment cases and saw the red X. Is there a connection between the two cases?”

Officer Tang’s expression stiffened, then he sighed and shook his head.

“What you mentioned, we also considered. Although the timing of the two cases is quite coincidental, the DNA comparison results from the victims do not match. We’ve basically ruled out a connection between the two cases.”

“Different victims? But even if the victims are different, that doesn’t rule out a connection between the cases. Perhaps the missing people aren’t dead yet?” Bao Shuai argued, growing more agitated.

Officer Tang, however, seemed uninterested in continuing the discussion.

"Let’s stop here for today. As for solving the case, leave it to us. You just need to take care of yourself. If you notice anything unusual, immediately use the communicator to contact us. I have to go prepare for other matters now."

“Hey, Officer Tang, don’t leave yet… Officer Tang…”

Officer Tang left quickly, and his hurried departure gave off a sense of fleeing, making Bao Shuai uneasy. It seemed that things were not as simple as he had been told.

But Bao Shuai had no choice. He had to stay there and wait in silence, uncertain whether the next visitor would be an angel or a devil.

That night, Bao Shuai lay on the sofa, staring blankly at the ceiling.

In the pitch-black room, he thought back to when he had moved from the countryside to the city four years ago, remembering the joy and pain of those four years in university, and thinking of the woman he loved—who had left him for a job.

It all felt like a dream, so close yet so far. What would tomorrow be like? Perhaps it didn’t matter what tomorrow was, as long as he was alive... gradually, he fell asleep.

How long he slept, Bao Shuai didn’t know, but he was suddenly awoken by a surge of heat. He felt as if he were in a furnace, his skin burning with intense heat.

“Ah... what’s going on?”

He struggled to sit up, grabbed his thick glasses and hurriedly rushed to the bathroom. All he wanted was a cold shower to cool down.

But after just two steps, he stumbled and fell, realizing his vision was blurred.

This feeling was familiar to Bao Shuai, who had 900-degree nearsightedness. His first instinct was that his vision had worsened again.

However, when he took off his glasses, he was shocked by what he saw.

The world had never been so clear. He could even see the “Room Information” notice on the wall several meters away, the letters looking huge—like flies—something even the best eyesight would struggle to recognize from two meters away.

Bao Shuai moved his eyes slightly and realized he had gained tremendous control over them, as if he could precisely adjust the focus like a camera.

Not only that, he noticed a second, semi-transparent eyelid had grown beneath his normal eyelid. When this eyelid closed, his eyes emitted a red glow, and the whole world turned black and white, while the room, which had been pitch black, now looked like broad daylight.

“Infrared imaging... this is infrared imaging... my God, adjustable focus, infrared imaging... this is like an infrared camera!” Bao Shuai thought in shock.

Wasn’t this exactly what happened to the superheroes in Marvel cartoons?

Excited, Bao Shuai immediately began inspecting his body.

He realized that not just his vision, but his hearing, sense of smell, strength, agility, and nearly every other physical function had been enhanced exponentially.

He was overjoyed, but also felt that everything was too strange.

Just as he tried to make sense of what was happening, a sudden, sharp pain shot through his neck—right where he had been attacked that night.

A chill ran down his spine. He rushed into the bathroom, tore off his shirt, and immediately froze in front of the mirror.

In the mirror, he saw a horrifying growth on his neck.

From the center of this growth, countless dark blue veins spread out like a spiderweb, twisting and curling around his body. The skin in those areas had turned bruised, and his muscles were contorted, making him look like a mutant from Resident Evil.

“What is this... what’s happening?!” he gasped in terror.

Fear overwhelmed him, and he couldn’t bring himself to look at his reflection any longer. Nervously, he went back to the sofa.

Was it just a hallucination or something more? He felt the veins on his body growing slowly, as if they wouldn’t stop until they completely consumed him.

Just as Bao Shuai didn’t know what to do, he suddenly heard a faint sound of footsteps from the next room. He instantly recognized them as Officer Tang’s footsteps.

“Officer Tang! Yes, Officer Tang! He can help me, he will definitely help me. The communicator, where’s the communicator?”

Desperate for help, Bao Shuai scrambled to find the communicator. Just as he was about to press the button, his keen hearing made him clearly hear Officer Tang’s voice.

“Hey, not asleep yet? We’re keeping an eye on him. His mood is stable. Yes, three teams, 24-hour surveillance. He can’t contact anyone outside... Okay, don’t worry, we’ll keep monitoring him... Okay, okay, goodbye.”

The voice stopped suddenly, followed by the sound of faint footsteps, as if Officer Tang were pacing back and forth.

“Monitoring... They’re not here to protect me... They’re here to monitor me?”

The last bit of hope shattered, but it also made Bao Shuai calm down. He quickly replayed the whole event in his mind, analyzing every detail.

"On the night of the 25th, I encountered a series of strange events, and then I was attacked by a mysterious person and lost consciousness. When I woke up, I was in the police station and met Officer Tang. All the information I’ve learned so far has come from Officer Tang. If this information is false, or if Officer Tang is not really a cop, then everything in front of me could be part of a scheme they want me to believe...

That means, since the night of the 25th, I have lost my freedom. Perhaps, to the outside world, I’ve been missing since that night!"

Bao Shuai was filled with terror, cold sweat pouring down his face.

At that moment, the bedroom door slowly creaked open.

Bao Shuai froze. He distinctly remembered the door was closed before he went to the bathroom, and it was locked, so it couldn’t have opened by itself.

Someone was in the room!

Fear surged through him. He stared at the door, preparing to flee at the slightest movement.

But time passed, and nothing happened.

After much hesitation, Bao Shuai couldn’t resist his curiosity and cautiously walked toward the bedroom. The room was empty except for a wardrobe, a small bed, and a desk.

Bao Shuai let out a long sigh, thinking he was being paranoid. But as he was about to head back to the living room, he suddenly noticed a small piece of paper on the neatly made bed.

There was no paper like that before. Someone must have come in!

Shocked, Bao Shuai instinctively picked up the

paper.

The note was small, only the size of a palm, with a line of small handwriting: "If you want to know the truth, meet me tomorrow night at 10 p.m., on the 11th floor of Tianyang Building."