Chapter 120 – Descendant (4)

The aircraft had landed on a deserted tundra. The hatch opened and several reconnaissance aircraft flew out first, followed by Natalie's men, who were wearing protective clothing with a thermal function, and began to build simple tents and erect a signal transmitter.

Large patches of unbroken snow and ice undulated slightly with the shape of the Earth. In the distance, the Arctic Sea reflected a hazy, holy light in the sun. The air here had a cold feeling of detachment and arrogance, displaying a sturdiness that had never been conquered by human beings.

Before Adam stepped out of the hatch he glanced back at Zhang Xun, who was following him. He turned around, tugged on Zhang Xun's unfastened collar, carefully pulled the zipper all the way to the top and straightened the hood on his head, saying in a rambling voice, "Stay here in the warm, or you'll get frostbite."

Zhang Xun allowed him to fix his collar, his eyes distant, as if he had withdrawn from his own body and was watching the scene in front of him as a third party.

Adam still remembered the way Zhang Xun used to look at him, with a look of wonder and warmth, rooted in some deeper emotion, as if Adam were the most beautiful creature in the world.

Now Zhang Xun's eyes were only confused, numb and with a persistent hint of fear, as if he were trying to grasp something that was passing through his mind, something that belonged to humans, but he was doomed to failure and became more and more frightened.

Zhang Xun would never look at him that way again.

As if to make up for something, Adam took Zhang Xun's hand and led him down the steps that extended from the craft to the frozen ground.

Zhang Xun lifted his eyes and gazed at the long line between earth and sky in the distance. It was a world of vastness that he couldn't have imagined back in Lost Paradise. Between the sky and the Earth, the human sphere of life was so small, like dust moving slowly and instantly into extinction in the moment of stillness after a violent storm.

A thick loneliness ate away at him, making him want to grasp something more vast, more...... powerful.

But he couldn't feel it, he couldn't feel anything. He was like an outcast isolated from the group, bewildered and disoriented.

Natalie stepped out behind them, the wind ruffling her long, thick, curly hair, "The Northwest Territories are so big, it's not going to be easy to find them."

Adam frowned slightly, his eyes looking somewhere in the air before he spoke a series of coordinate numbers.

"Go to these locations and you might be able to find them."

Natalie looked at him in shock, "How do you know that? Aren't you disconnected from Eden?"

"He used his knowledge of my father and the distribution of the various towns and military garrisons in the Northwest to calculate a few locations where my father would most likely be hiding." Zhang Xun quietly answered for Adam beside him, as if it were a perfectly ordinary thing to do, "But what Adam can calculate, Eden can probably calculate too."

"So we need to find him before Eden does." Adam thought for a moment and narrowed it down to a definite coordinate, "Zhang Shuo is of a stable nature and it's reasonable to assume that he would choose the furthest location from the Canadian garrison and Eden's forces. And since he escaped in a hurry and didn't have time to prepare adequate armaments, it's likely that he would have gone to the abandoned Inuit or Métis villages. But word of what had happened to Zhang Xun in Feathered Serpent City has probably reached his ears, so his immediate priority would probably be to find a way to contact some forces to rescue him. The most likely person he would contact here is the 'Free Folk' leader who is number thirty-seven on my list."

Adam paused and looked at Zhang Xun, "Therefore, by entering the activity range of the leader of the Free Folk to find the possible intersection of the two, and then considering the weather and the possibility of replenishing armaments, this coordinate is the most likely place to find Zhang Shuo."

Natalie froze for half a second. Even though she had been educated by the most refined of engineers, with three degrees and two PhDs, she was still intimidated by Adam's abilities. Probably because Adam was so human that after a while of contact with him one could forget that he was in fact Eden, only Eden tainted by humanity.

"I'll send someone out to locate it. Also, I've had the nanobots you developed sent to Feathered Serpent City, but Eden's blockade around Feathered Serpent City hasn't been lifted yet, so it's going to take some effort for them to get in."

Adam nodded and smiled gracefully at her, vaguely like how Zhang Xun used to, "Thank you."

Only after Natalie left did Adam look at Zhang Xun again expectantly, as if waiting for a reaction from the other side. Zhang Xun realised that the nanobots had probably been sent to save James.

"You succeeded?"

"I haven't developed one that can save you yet, but as long as James hasn't been injected with nanobots already, I can fix him." Adam said, lifting his hand and reaching into the ring of fur that lined his hood, stroking Zhang Xun's cheek with a hand that didn't need to wear gloves, "Don't worry, James will soon be saved."

Zhang Xun knew that if he hadn't been injected with nanobots, he would have cried tears of joy, but now, he didn't feel anything.

It made his body tremble slightly.

"Wait until we find your father, then maybe I will be able to cure you." Adam looked at him seriously, as if he was making a promise, "Don't give up, Ah-Xun."

Zhang Xun looked at him calmly, no ripples in his eyes, "Thank you."

Adam's heart ached slightly.

Near the polar circle it got dark very early. Adam sat cross-legged in his tent, a wire connected between his brain and his tablet. His eyes looked blankly somewhere in the air as he concentrated on writing a piece of code.

Suddenly, the tent's insulation curtain was lifted. Adam watched in dismay as Zhang Xun burrowed in, a rolled up sleeping bag in his arms.

"Ah-Xun?"

Zhang Xun gave him a look and placed the sleeping bag next to his, spreading it out carefully. Adam was dumbfounded and accidentally wrote a big mess of code that he hastily deleted in his head, "Ah-Xun...... you're sleeping in my tent?"

Zhang Xun looked up, his eyes glowing ghostly in the dim light, "Yes."

"Uh...... ok...... that's fine." Adam scrambled to unplug the wiring at the back of his head but didn't know what to do next, "Are you hungry? I've got some energy biscuits here."

While he was rummaging through his backpack for food, his wrist was suddenly grabbed by a warm human hand. Zhang Xun's breath suddenly came closer and he could even feel Zhang Xun's breath landing gently on the surface of his skin.

When he raised his eyes, he was almost engulfed by Zhang Xun's pair of dark eyes.

"Ah...... Xun?" He swallowed his saliva, the knot in his throat sliding up and down.

Zhang Xun stared at him, the skin on his neck the colour of honey in the dense light.

"I need you to help me." Zhang Xun whispered, "I want to...... feel something...... I want to connect with someone else."

It was like an itching sensation within his skull where his fingers couldn't scratch it no matter what. That awful hollowness was consuming him, sapping his soul and sense of individual existence bit by bit. He wasn't even sure he was still alive and only when Adam spoke to him and touched him did he regain a slight sense of being alive.

This was why some who had been injected with nanobots lost their sanity. They needed to connect with everyone's consciousness, wanting to be certain of their own existence through the consciousness of others, even if that certainty would eventually dissolve their existence.

Zhang Xun now finally understood it in full, but he was powerless to resist.

He was losing his emotions, his senses. He was becoming them.

Adam's heartbeat was so loud that he wondered if Zhang Xun could hear it. He felt Zhang Xun's hand fall on his neck, his thumb gently rubbing the skin on his jaw.

How long had it been since he had felt this kind of intimate touch from Zhang Xun?

It was when he had still been in Lost Paradise, the night Zhang Xun had pretended to be sick and they had fallen asleep together in an embrace.

It had been too long.

After that, Adam had stayed with Zhang Xun under the guise of Enoch and every moment he wanted to rush to his side and open his arms to hold him and never let go, but he told himself that this impulse was irrational, a human flaw that he should resist, that he should ignore.

But now he no longer had to resist.

He raised his hand and gently traced Zhang Xun's lips. Zhang Xun's mouth opened slightly and he lightly bit his fingertips.

Adam's mind exploded.

"Are you sure, Ah-Xun......?"

Zhang Xun stared at him with an almost provocative expression and nodded slightly.

In the next instant, Adam pulled Zhang Xun into his arms.

............................................................

In the early hours of the morning, Adam opened his eyes. His blue eyes fell on the quiet, sleeping face of the person in his arms and there was an unending warmth of affection that wandered inside him.

In this moment, Adam was completely human, but he didn't feel repulsed anymore.

What had happened last night seemed like a dream, he had never imagined that he would be able to embrace Zhang Xun again one day.

He knew that Zhang Xun wanted to feel that he still existed through him and knew that this meant that the nanobots had encroached on Zhang Xun to a dangerous degree, but he still felt a long-lost sense of...... happiness, for the warmth of last night.

A sense of happiness that belonged to humans, a happiness that originally meant nothing to him.

But now, when he looked at Zhang Xun's overly calm, dreamless sleep, the panic that had followed him like a shadow returned, becoming stronger and more dangerous than before.

He hugged Zhang Xun tightly, his eyes swollen and his nose slightly sore. He was feeling sad, a sadness that he wasn't performing for anyone else, a sadness that was truly his own.

But at that moment, Natalie's voice came from outside the tent.

"Zhang Shuo has been found!"

At the sound of his father's name, Zhang Xun opened his eyes somewhat hesitantly and looked up at Adam who still had his arm tightly around his shoulders and refused to let go. Adam, in turn, looked down at him and gave a bright smile.