The Northern Base successively sent three waves of people to Jeju City, and even worked to open another railway line connecting to Jeju for this purpose, finally taking over the New Jeju Base in a relatively peaceful manner.
As for their wrangling with the Jeju Base’s administrators, Xue Ling was not clear about it. She and Wen Jiuzhe did not participate, but she heard that it went a bit more smoothly than expected.
Perhaps there was also the reason of her “threat.”
During this period of time, Xue Ling and Wen Jiuzhe were both busy with matters concerning that freezing center.
After reviewing the materials that had been moved out from here, the Northern Base quickly decided to relocate the entire freezing center to the Northern Base.
And they would not allow the Jeju City Base to freeze living people any longer.
Because after a group of big shots from the Northern Research Base examined the core freezing technology and their hundreds of reports on freezing living people, they believed that the freezing of living people was a lie.
For healthy people or those with illnesses, the probability of death after being frozen and then awakened was extremely high.
Especially after three years of freezing, almost all living subjects had become brain-dead.
In order to make those wealthy people continue investing resources, the holders of the freezing center had fabricated monitoring instruments, creating the illusion that these frozen individuals were still alive.
The only thing they had stumbled upon by accident was that this freezing technology was useful for people infected with the zombie virus.
In sustained low temperatures, the zombie virus instead maintained the vitality of the human body. They coiled in the brain, ceasing reproduction and activity, while at the same time protecting the “nest” they inhabited.
The energy continuously provided by the zombie virus, together with this freezing technology, could truly halt time for the infected.
This single discovery was enough to make the Northern Base attach double importance to them.
There were far too many infected soldiers in the Northern Base. Beyond the missions of Wen Jiuzhe and Xue Ling, at every moment, soldiers were carrying out dangerous and arduous tasks.
Being infected with the virus, for them now, was still equivalent to Death waving.
With this freezing technology, infected soldiers had one more possibility of surviving.
As long as they could undergo frozen slumber before completely turning into zombies, they might be saved in the future by newly developed medicines.
During the days when the Northern Base was constructing the freezing center, Xue Ling injected the tenth dose of the reagent.
Wen Jiuzhe also relented and agreed to be frozen together with her.
“You mean, you two are going to hold hands and be frozen together, lying in the freezing chamber at the same time?”
Wen Yi had just finished a research meeting and was blocked at the door by the young couple, listening to their freezing plan.
Then she was speechless for a moment, and said, “The last time I saw a similar plot like lovers dying together was in Liang Zhu, the two who turned into butterflies.”
Xue Ling felt a little awkward.
Wen Jiuzhe tossed the doorknob he had unscrewed from Wen Yi’s door, showing no reaction at all to her words.
“All right, if you insist.” Wen Yi pressed her fingers against her forehead. “Tomorrow I’ll submit the application for you.”
Xue Ling pulled out the application form she had already prepared. “The format and everything are correct. If revisions are needed, there’s also an electronic version here.”
Wen Yi took the documents, and incidentally took the doorknob from Wen Jiuzhe’s hand, turned and shoved it back into her own door, pushed the door open, went inside, and hung the chain lock behind it.
The freezing center of the Northern Base was completed. The first batch had one hundred slots. The number of slots was small, but for such a large base with so many people, it was far from enough to distribute.
They did not adopt the high-priced auction method for freezing slots used by the Jeju City Base. They did not require money, but required that the applicants must be soldiers who truly had merits and had made contributions.
The candidates were personally approved by General Hao. The first batch was only approved for soldiers who had been infected while carrying out missions on the front lines.
All loopholes were to be cut off, such as people with information or status engaging in under-the-table operations, stuffing in relatives and friends who did not meet the requirements.
The first freezing application General Hao received was submitted through Wen Yi. Looking at those two familiar names, he let out a long sigh.
If it came to merit, the contributions made by Xue Ling and the two of them were indeed very great. But precisely because they were too great, General Hao could not bear to let the two of them be frozen just like that.
At present, there were still many difficult problems that had not been overcome, and many hardships that still needed to be resolved. With either of them present, many missions could reduce a great number of casualties.
He called Wen Yi over.
“Xue Ling, I know her. She has already shown uncontrollable symptoms and may lose her last shred of rationality at any time. I fully agree with her applying for freezing.”
“But Wen Jiuzhe—can his freezing be delayed? I think his condition should still be all right. Maybe you can discuss it with him on your side and arrange for him to be in one of the later batches?”
Wen Yi had been prepared for this long ago and took out a stack of paper documents.
“General, this is Wen Jiuzhe’s physical condition changes over the past year or so.”
“He has undergone RE virus experiments and a second virus extraction experiment. His depletion is even more severe than Xue Ling’s.”
“Half a year ago, he already showed a continuous decline in agility. Three months ago, his strength weakened, his vision deteriorated, his perception deteriorated… You should already be aware that his mission completion rate has long since no longer been one hundred percent. In the later stages, there were quite a few mistakes.”
“My prediction is that even if he is not frozen now, he will no longer be able to continue carrying out important missions. He will quickly enter the final stage of decline, and then be directly scrapped.” Wen Yi said all this without emotion.
General Hao looked at those documents and fell silent for an even longer time. In the end, he picked up his pen, wrote “approved” on the application, and signed his name.
He put down his hand, which was covered with age spots, and sighed:
“I will look forward to the day they return. I hope our soldiers can return to their homeland in the future.”
“I hope that by then, our homeland will no longer be covered in devastation.”
After obtaining the two freezing approvals, Wen Jiuzhe felt surprised. “It was approved just like that? There’s nothing else I need to do?”
He had thought there would be a round of talks. He did not expect it to be easier than imagined.
Xue Ling tugged at him. “I told you earlier, it’s fine.”
Wen Jiuzhe: “Then who was it that got so nervous and worried that she suddenly sat up in the middle of the night and tore our blanket into shreds?”
Xue Ling: “So what? We don’t even need to use a blanket!”
Wen Jiuzhe: “‘Even though it won’t be cold, I think we need a blanket.’ Remember that? You said it yourself earlier.”
Xue Ling: “Can you stop remembering everything?”
Wen Jiuzhe: “Jealous that I have a good memory again.”
Xue Ling did not continue responding. She carefully looked at the two cards, shook Wen Jiuzhe’s hand, and said, “We’re numbers 001 and 002. We’re the first two to be frozen in the Northern Base freezing center. Isn’t that kind of commemorative?”
Wen Jiuzhe: “What if the freezing fails and many years later we get dug up by archaeology? Then we’ll be dried corpse number 001 and dried corpse number 002.”
“Nonsense,” Xue Ling glared at him. “It should be dried corpse number 002 and frozen beauty.”
Wen Jiuzhe: “……”
There were less than three days left before their freezing date.
The other infected who were about to be frozen were on their way back to the base. They were soldiers whose conditions had worsened after infection and who had shown poor results after using the new virus vaccine.
There were also freshly infected ones, their skin already turning bluish. When they were sent to the freezing center, they were still grinning stiffly in excitement, shouting, “This is too amazing, just like in the movies. Can I lie in here for a hundred years?”
It was a young soldier. The teammates who came to send him off spoke in a chaotic chorus: “Kid, you’re dreaming pretty well. Want to rest that long? At most we’ll let you lie down for a year. You’ll be back next year, got it!”
“You still want to lie down for a hundred years. This spot is so scarce. Hurry up and get better so you can give the spot to someone else!”
“Don’t worry. The virus vaccine’s effectiveness has been slowly improving. There will definitely be a vaccine that can completely suppress the virus very soon. You won’t be lying down for long.”
Beside every person about to be frozen, there were people seeing them off.
Xue Ling and Wen Jiuzhe also had theirs.
Xue Ling took photos with everyone who came to see her off. Wen Jiuzhe and the soldiers who came to see him off looked at each other, the atmosphere between both sides silent.
Compared with the warmth elsewhere, the expressions on every face in front of Wen Jiuzhe were solemn, as if offering flowers at a martyr’s grave.
Wen Jiuzhe rarely took the initiative to start a topic: “Otherwise I’ll lie down now, and you can form a circle and pay your respects?”
A soldier was amused into laughter, then hurriedly restrained his expression, but for a moment, the grief-stricken expression could no longer be put on.
Finally Captain Shen Zhang took the lead and said, “We came to see you off… hope everything goes smoothly.”
Someone else said dryly, “Last time on a mission, you saved me. You left quickly at the time, and I didn’t get the chance to thank you. Thank you.”
“And me. You saved me twice. But I guess you don’t remember my name. Uh, later on I’ll come visit you regularly.”
Wen Jiuzhe: “Don’t bring chrysanthemums. Thanks.”
Halfway through taking photos, Xue Ling turned her head back worriedly to look at Wen Jiuzhe’s side. Seeing that the circle of people around him were all laughing, she finally felt a bit relieved.
There was not much time left for them to exchange pleasantries. The friends and relatives saying farewell left one after another. They had to enter the freezing chambers in succession.
Wen Yi had come specially today to take charge of their freezing.
This couple, who wanted to fall into slumber hand in hand, looking as if they would share the same quilt in life and the same grave in death, encountered conflict at the very first step.
“Why should I go first? No. You go first,” Xue Ling proposed.
“Because you’re 001 and I’m 002. We go by serial number. What’s the problem?” Wen Jiuzhe replied.
“It doesn’t have to go by serial number. The ones behind have already started freezing. You first! What if I go first and lose consciousness, and you regret it and walk away without freezing?”
“You don’t trust me? I don’t trust you either. What if I freeze first and you regret it later?”
“I mean what I say. You like lying.”
“I like lying? Be reasonable—have I ever lied to you?”
“You still have the nerve to say that? You lie to me every day! You remember clearly every casual complaint I make, but what you yourself did, you don’t remember in the slightest.”
“Your condition is more serious. I need to watch you freeze first and make sure there’s no problem before I can feel at ease, understand?”
“Are you an expert? You’re a patient yourself and still worrying about the doctor’s job. Be honest and hurry up and freeze. You already promised me.”
“……”
Wen Yi stood at the side, hands in her pockets, watching them communicate, her expression growing more and more indifferent.
Do the two of you, as a couple, have no sense of trust between you at all?
If one didn’t know that these two would love each other even in death, one might almost think they were acting out some dark ancient plot of lovers agreeing to die together, only to regret it at the final moment.
“Enough, there’s no time. Give me the tablets.”
“Inject the reagent directly, and press them down in together.”
When the tablets were taken away, Xue Ling’s hand moved instinctively, lifting slightly toward Wen Jiuzhe.
Wen Jiuzhe held her hand.
If he could speak, Xue Ling knew he would say, “It’s fine. Don’t be afraid.”
Wen Yi: “Separate. Go lie down yourselves. Don’t make me play the Queen Mother of the West here and call people to tear you apart.”
Xue Ling let go of Wen Jiuzhe awkwardly, gave him a little push, and returned to her own freezing chamber.
After lying down, she suddenly lifted her head again. Seeing that Wen Jiuzhe had also lain down in the other freezing chamber, she finally lay back again.
Wen Yi first operated the freezing chamber on Wen Jiuzhe’s side, then came over to Xue Ling’s side.
She said, “Don’t worry.”
Xue Ling was completely at ease. She mouthed a “thank you,” then closed her eyes in fatigue.
A “buzzing” sound rose on all sides, and the freezing chambers closed one after another.
In the now-quiet freezing room, Wen Yi tidied up the remaining medicines. In the end, she took one last look at freezing chambers numbered 001 and 002.
Not long ago, both of them had come to see her separately. Wen Jiuzhe had said that after Xue Ling was frozen, she should bring him out.
He wanted to stand guard. In case there was any problem with the freezing, he could stop it in time. He did not feel at ease.
Xue Ling had said that if Wen Jiuzhe was not frozen, she must be awakened.
If both of them were frozen, then when the time came in the future to awaken them, she must be awakened first. If the awakening failed, they were not to attempt awakening Wen Jiuzhe again.
Wen Yi had agreed to both of them at the time.
However, of course she would not act according to what either of them had said.
November 3037, the first batch of infected at the Northern Base were frozen.
In the more than ten years that followed, infected individuals were frozen and thawed one after another.
The first batch of those frozen were also successively thawed and treated within twenty years. Some successfully survived; some failed and died.
