Autophagy

Without any further explanations, Clark pushed Song Lei towards the exit. A deep frown appeared on Song Lei's face as he started walking towards the laboratory.

'This has become problematic. Clark is aware of everything that's going on,' Song Lei thought. 'If I don't figure out something, he will just use me as his lapdog...'

While Song Lei was thinking about his grim fate, he heard solemn footsteps coming towards him. He raised his head to look at the owner. It was Aston. He was coming towards him with a wide smile on his face.

"Aston?" Song Lei said. He was very tired because of his fight with Tomas.

"You seem tired. Do you need to take a nap?" He asked. If Song Lei slept now, he would be able to sleep for 30 or so minutes.

"That would be good..." Song Lei said. He yawned loudly and wiped some tears off of his eyes. They went ahead and sat on a bench. Song Lei closed his eyes and instantly went into a deep sleep. After he slept for thirty minutes, Aston woke him up.

"We have ten minutes," Aston said. "We should talk about something. I have good news."

Hearing Aston mention good news, Song Lei stretched. He knew that if Aston was calling something good news, it would be very good news.

"What is it?" He asked. Aston took out a small box from his pocket and showed it to Song Lei.

"This is our weapon," he said while taking out a small syringe from the box. Song Lei raised one of his brows and took the syringe from Aston's hands.

"What does it do?" Song Lei asked while looking at the syringe from every possible angle. There was a purple liquid with very low viscosity inside the syringe. For some reason, Song Lei felt that it would taste incredibly tasty if he poured some of it into his mouth. Suppressing his urges, he waited for Aston's explanation.

"I was trying to invent a way to get those worms out of someone's body," Aston said. He got up from the bench and started walking in circles. "At first, it was a bit hard for me to understand." He said. "Do you remember when Rufus puked those worms into my mouth?" He asked.

Seeing Song Lei nod, he continued by saying, "Even though you made me puke most of the worms, after that, I started feeling the worms tugs at my very soul. No matter how much I searched for them in my body, I couldn't find them." He said. There was a pained expression on his face. "Finally, I understood that they weren't in my physical body but in my spirit. Knowing that, I used my soul theory to prove it myself."

Song Lei had a bit of a hard time processing Aston's words. He scratched his head and did his best to keep up. "So? What happened then?"

"I came out victorious. I was right. The worms were attaching themselves into people's souls," Aston said with a crazed smile. His expression was distorting from time to time, alerting Song Lei. "They would activate in the night and pull out their desires to create new personalities with them. That's the reason why they act like that!"

Hearing Aston talk about his achievements excitedly, Song Lei sighed.

"There were some other things about the worm, like the fact that it provides high levels of regeneration to the person," Aston said. He pinched the bridge of his nose for a second. "God... These worms are taking a toll on me..." He muttered. He walked to the bench and sat down beside Song Lei.

"Anyways," Aston said. "Today, I managed to finish that," he said while pointing at the syringe that Song Lei was holding in his hands.

"What does it do?" Song Lei asked while raising one of his brows. Aston took it from his hands.

"Here. Watch," he said. Without giving Song Lei any time to react, Aston stabbed the syringe into his neck and injected all of the liquid into his body.

Seeing that there wasn't anything that he could do, Song Lei decided to sit back and watch what would happen.

Less than five seconds after Aston injected the fluid, all the veins on his face and neck started bulging and showing purple color. That purple color then turned into a red one as Aston's adam's apple started quivering.

Aston seemed to be suffering a lot of pain as he went down on his knees. His stomach slightly bulged. That bulge started heading towards his mouth from his stomach. Shortly after, the bulge reached Aston's mouth as he started puking violently. In his puke were some undigested meals from the dinner. However, most importantly, there were purple worms quivering around. A lot of them.

A weird stench was coming out of Aston's puke. Fortunately, they were in an open place with nobody around, so the smell would dissipate quickly. After puking and belching for a whole minute, Aston wiped his mouth with a napkin he had with him. He then took out a small bottle of chemical from the box he had given to Song Lei.

He twisted the cork of the bottle and poured the chemical onto his puke. Shortly after, all of the worms inside his puke disappeared without leaving any signs of them being there.

"How is it?" Aston asked with an uncharacteristically smug smile. His eyes were filled with tiredness. Song Lei patted his shoulder.

"You achieved something great Aston," Song Lei said. "Thanks to you, everyone in this orphanage will be saved."

"You think so?" Aston said as his smug smile turned into a bittersweet one. "I always thought that my inventions would be used for the bad," he said. He turned his towards Song Lei and looked into his eyes. "Do you think that I'll be able to help those in need with my inventions?"

Song Lei didn't know what to say. Since the first time they met, he had thought of Aston as a cold-hearted scientist that would do anything for his research and would never think about others' wellbeing. Now, however, he understood that this wasn't the case. Smiling widely, Song Lei held both of Aston's shoulders.

"That's not something you should worry about," he said. "You're a scientist. You work for humanity. Humans do stupid things. However, what you do with your own inventions is entirely up to you. As long as you try to do so, you can use it for the greater good." Hearing Song Lei's words, Aston's eyes widened for a second.

"Thank you, Lewis..." He muttered. "Thank you..."

As Aston calmed down, Song Lei looked at the time. It was about to hit 22:00, which meant curfew for them. If they didn't want to get scolded, they had to get back in time. Urging Aston to move, they both started running to their dorm room.

Running at full speed, they managed to reach the room just a minute before the curfew.

"You guys are late. Are you sure you're okay?" Clark asked with his creepy smile.

"Yes, we are," Song Lei said. "An experiment slightly went wrong, so we had to deal with the aftermath."

"Oh! I hope it wasn't something bad," Clark said. "Anyways, it is about curfew time. Good night."

Carefully lying to Clark, Song Lei sneaked into his bed. He knew that Clark probably knew he was lying, however, it wasn't much of a problem. Song Lei knew that Clark didn't think of them as a threat to him, so he was unafraid.

After all of them laid down on their beds, the curfew bell resounded all around the orphanage and the lights went out.

Song Lei went into a deep meditative state where he calmed his mind and thought about his days with his little sister Ai. This way, Song Lei couldn't even understand the passing of time. As the clock hit 00:00, the whole orphanage shook.

Just like the last night, Clark and Rufus got up from their bed. Today, however, both of them properly left the room. Song Lei was puzzled by their action. Had Rufus forgotten everything that had happened last night? Or was it that he was simply disregarding it because of Clark's order.

This time making sure that Clark and Rufus were gone, Song Lei opened his eyes and shook the bunk. Aston felt the shaking of the bunk and woke up as well. They both jumped off of the bed and stretched.

"Have you rested enough?" Song Lei asked. Not everyone could go sleepless like him.

"I'm good as new," Aston said. He truly seemed to be in a better state than normal.

"That's great," Song Lei answered.

He walked up to the windows of the room. After looking out of them to make sure that the festival was going on, Song Lei sighed. The midnight festival of carnal desires was continuing like normal.

"Everything seems to be normal," Song Lei said. Aston smiled widely.

"That's great then. Tonight, we shall start our new plans...."