Mother of Insects

Chapter Forty-Four

It's very painful, being forcibly awakened from a deep sleep.

Lin Xi reluctantly opened his eyes under Jerry's push. He was terribly exhausted, his mind still in a mess.

Even though Jerry's bearded face was dangling in front of him, his lips opening and closing, shouting something loudly, in those short ten minutes, what emerged in Lin Xi's mind was still the scenes of his dream— the translucent fetal sac slowly condensing in the endless darkness, the insect eggs densely packed inside; the strange monsters breeding and spreading on one planet after another; huge insects landing in front of him; countless human or inhuman creatures turning into a translucent slurry bit by bit, to be sucked by horrifically deformed insects. The last image that remained in his mind was the most terrifying.

He dreamed of an extremely terrifying giant insect. What should've been a hard carapace was pale human skin. The insect kept poking his shoulder with its forelimbs, flashing its huge and terrifying compound eyes, asking pitifully "Am I... ugly?"

"Dr Lin Xi— Dr Lin Xi— wake up! Something happened last night!"

It's like a broken television finally returning to normal, his mind slowly became clearer.

Finally, Lin Xi vaguely realized what Jerry was talking about.

"What happened?"

He repeated in a murmur while rubbing his painfully swollen temples.

"Something did..."

"When's the last time you saw Francis? What was the situation like?"

Jerry asked urgently.

Lin Xi looked at him blankly. He rubbed his forehead and replied in a daze:

"The last time I saw him? Of course it was last night... I was too tired and didn't pay attention to him. I fell asleep before I could even finish taking off my exploration suit. What happened to him?"

"He died."

Jerry told Lin Xi simply and clearly.

Behind the helmet of his exploration suit, his expression looked sad and funny.

"Francis... what? Francis is dead?!"

"Yes, Francis is dead, and so is Stephen."

Lin Xi finally woke up.

He looked around in disbelief, like he would see Francis here again in the next second.

The tent was as dimly lit as it was before he fell asleep, everything was in its original position. Just as Lin Xi saw before he fell asleep due to fatigue, there was no traces of anyone else using the tent.

"Oh my God, what's going on?" Lin Xi hurriedly put on his exploration suit, and followed Jerry out of the dome tent.

If they look at the time recorded on the personal terminal, it should be dawn outside by this time, but the temporary campsite deep in the cave was still as dark, cold and quiet as eternal night. Only in the open space between the dome tents, cold light lamps placed by humans emitted a faint blue light. The remaining exploration team members had woken up a long time ago. They were staying uneasily somewhere not far from the dome tent. When they saw Lin Xi walking towards them closely behind Jerry, everyone's whispers stopped for a moment. Some people hesitated to speak, while others stared at Lin Xi warily. The atmosphere instantly became solemn, but Lin Xi didn't care so much now.

He saw them as early as he got closer— under the cold light, the orange color of the exploration uniform emerged from the gaps in the crowd. Lin Xi walked over without hesitation, he then stood in front of the crowd and saw the two bodies in the middle.