“That’s enough!” Anthony suddenly interrupted, seemingly refusing to entertain Nicolas any further.
He raised one hand in the air. Soon after, Joseph approached us and opened the cell door, dragging Nicolas out with his arms pinned behind him.
At that same moment, two bodyguards entered the basement carrying a wooden chair. They made a beeline for the cell and set the chair down, taking some ropes out to tie Nicolas up to the chair. After that was done, they secured some sort of metal device to the back of his head, exposing only his face.
Then, some other bodyguards hauled in a large, flat bucket and placed it behind the chair, as well as set up a water pipe right above where the bucket was.
Anthony walked over and kicked the legs of the wooden chair, causing Nicolas to fall backward and land his head in the bucket behind him.
He slowly circled around the older man, observing him carefully. When he reached the water pipe, he turned it on.
A continuous string of drops of water came rushing forth from the pipe, hitting Nicolas’ forehead one after the other without pause.
My breath hitched in my throat. Is this… another form of waterboarding?
Anthony leaned down slightly to make sure that Nicolas would be able to hear him, his eyes fogged over with murderous intent and his tone as cold as ice. “Have a taste of the pain you caused me for months and years.”
With that, he walked over towards me and helped me up the stairs out of the basement, stopping in his tracks briefly to call out over his shoulder, “Don’t feed them food or water for a week straight.”
When we went back to the living room, a group of people in white coats were already there waiting for us.
From what I could recall, the only people associated with Anthony that would look like medical officials were the ones that had been in charge of researching medicine and drugs.
“They invented the very vaccine that Nicolas gave you,” Anthony explained to me, confirming my suspicions.
Taking a good look at the group, none of them seemed particularly evil or villainous. if anything, I spotted some fear in their expressions.
John approached the eldest-looking researcher. “Where’s the antidote?”
The man, who had been hanging his head, ducked into himself even further. “T- There is no antidote…”
“What?” John grabbed ahold of his collar, shaking him violently as he growled out through gritted teeth, “So you’re just going to let her die?”
“No, it’s not like that, Mr. John. Please listen to my explanation. I said no antidote means Ms. Stanhope doesn’t need an antidote. She had fully recovered from the poison a few years ago!”
Hearing that, John’s anger subsided. However, in the next second, his gaze turned cold again. He lifted Dr. Perez off the ground and queried through his gritted teeth, “What the hell is going on? You’d better tell me everything now!”
After all, John used to be a frivolous and vicious young man in K City. When he was angry, the aura exuded was quite terrifying. Gripped by an irrepressible sense of dread, Dr. Perez started to twitch, and his eyes turned white.
Old people always got shocked easily.
Seeing that, John’s heart softened. He loosened his grip, although he was angry at that time.
Just as Dr. Perez fell to the ground, a young researcher who was standing beside him took a bottle of medicine and passed it to the former. After breathing in the medicine deeply a few times, his condition became better.
As soon as Dr. Perez let out a long exhale, John bent down to grab the medicine and raised it above the former’s head. Then, he continued to ask with a dour expression, “I don’t have much patience. Count yourself lucky just now. Next time, no one will bring you medicine. Quick, spill the beans!”
Upon hearing that, Dr. Perez and the young researcher looked at each other with the conflicted looks on their faces while sneaking a peek at Anthony from every now and then.
Rather than saying they were afraid of John, it seemed more like they were darting their inquiry gazes at Anthony.
Soon, John had also noticed that, so he turned to look at Anthony. At that, his expression changed.
Just as he was about to ask them, Anthony said, “Go ahead.” His tone was firm and domineering.
After that, Dr. Perez tugged on the cuff of John’s trousers and explained as he sobbed, “Mr. Hall is the mastermind. We just followed his order. We did not expect things to turn out this way… Ten years ago, Mr. Hall took Mr. Featherstone and Ms. Stanhope’s DNA samples back. After examination, it was found that Mr. Featherstone encountered a genetic mutation. But surprisingly, we found that a component of Ms. Stanhope’s genes could treat Mr. Featherstone’s genetic deformity! Mr. Hall was very concerned about the genetic quality of his descendants, so he established this project team to figure out a way to perform genetic editing. Ten years ago, studies that had looked at how genetic editing worked on animals had shown that the technique was working well. Hence, after examining Ms. Stanhope’s genes thoroughly, Mr. Hall decided to perform the experiment on Ms. Stanhope. Actually, the experiment would cause side effects. Mr. Hall knew that Mr. Featherstone wouldn’t agree to it, so he kidnapped the children to check if they were healthy. At the same time, he injected the drug into Ms. Stanhope’s body.”
Human genetic modification had always been severely restricted in many countries. Although the experiment was at odds with the principles of human rights, it was not hard to understand why Nicolas did this. The worst situation was basically sacrificing one life to save another. To put it bluntly, he was buying life.
Maybe I had died once, so I didn’t get frustrated upon hearing Dr. Perez’s words. Instead, I felt a sense of relief at that time.
When the toxin took effect, it was agony. I felt dizzy and vomited badly. I was barely conscious throughout the period. I used to worry that I couldn’t accompany my kids as they grow. But luckily, everything was over, and Anthony was healthy now. My sacrifice was worth it.
Nicolas knew Anthony very well. If the latter knew that I would need to suffer so much for his health, he would definitely not agree to it.
But the former didn’t know me. If he told me the truth about who he really was and explained his intentions, I would definitely agree with his plan and be willing to sacrifice for Anthony.
At that moment, I couldn’t read John’s expression. He narrowed his eyes and fixed his gaze on Dr. Perez as he inquired, “So six years ago, Letty frequently passed out and vomited blood because of this? Those are the side effects of the drug?”
Upon hearing the question, Dr. Perez relaxed his grip on the former’s trousers. He slumped onto the ground with his head lowered and looked around anxiously with a fearful look on his face.
John had sharp eyes. When he noticed Dr. Perez’s unusual behavior, he immediately raised his leg, stomped at the latter, and bellowed, “Stop stuttering. Just spit it out!”
The kick was powerful. John didn’t hold back his strength at all. At that moment, Dr. Perez pressed a hand against his chest because he was in so much pain that he couldn’t speak.
Seeing that, the young researcher rushed toward Dr. Perez, stood in front of him to stop John, and begged for mercy, “Mr. Stanhope, please stop it. I’ll talk. I’ll tell you everything. Vomiting blood, dizziness, and prolonged sleep are the side effects of another poison that we injected into Ms. Stanhope’s body to deceive the public. But shortly after Ms. Stanhope lost her consciousness, she was given the antidote under someone’s supervision. As for the side effects of human genetic modification, we know nothing about that, so I don’t know how to explain it.”
“What the f*ck… Speak human language! I just want to know will Letty be alright!” John yelled as he grabbed onto the researcher’s collar angrily.
“I don’t know, I don’t…” The tall and well-built man who was wearing glasses was frightened to tears. “We extracted the gene fragment that was cultivated. Theoretically, Ms. Stanhope will go blind shortly after the experiment. But it had been so long since we injected the medicine, and nothing had happened to Ms. Stanhope, so we really don’t know if the gene fragment will undergo mutation or trigger any other pathological changes. Ms. Stanhope is the first person involved in the human genetic modification experiment. We haven’t gathered the statistics for the analysis of experimental data yet, so we can’t even estimate the probability of the occurrence of gene mutation and the symptoms.”
At that, the young researcher broke down completely. He dared not look John in the eyes.
In the meantime, we were at a loss, too, when we heard that.
It turned out that I had to sacrifice my vision for Anthony’s eyesight.
God really did bless us that I didn’t encounter genetic mutation, but the medicine that remained in my body was like a ticking time bomb, ready to be activated at any moment.
At that time, I felt as if I was treading on thin ice. I was too familiar with this feeling that I broke into laughter and said, “It seems like God envies me for being too blissful.” I was talking to Anthony, but his expression was grim upon hearing that.
I knew that he felt extremely guilty toward me, but it wasn’t his fault at all.
Just as I was about to console him, an idea struck me. I turned to the young researcher and inquired, “You said I am the first person who involves in the experiment. Does this mean that you are still conducting the experiment now?”
It was only then that I remembered the babies that were taken captive by Armond at M Country.
The success rate of gene modification would be higher if the subjects were younger. Therefore, Nicolas chose to do this to the defenseless children.
Survival of the fittest was nature’s law that had never changed. But to the Hall family, it had become an excuse for them to take others’ lives.
In order to realize the “Perfect Gene” plan, the Hall family acted against the principle of human rights and used newborns as lab rats. They sacrificed other families’ happiness in order to keep their wealth.
Upon hearing my question, all the researchers lowered their heads and remained silent.
Their reaction had proved that my speculation was spot-on.
At that moment, anger overpowered me. I couldn’t hold it in and shouted, “What the heck?”
Becoming a human lab rat was very scary. Those people would be treated inhumanely like the animals in the circus. The rich people always tortured the “lower class” and ruined their hopes while enjoying the fruits of the latter’s efforts.
New Book: Back Home to Marry Off Myself
Loredana’s father left the family for his mistress, leaving them to fend for themselves abroad. When life was at its toughest, her father showed up with “good news” after 8 years of absence: To marry off Loredana to a paralyzed son of the wealthy Mendelsohn family.
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