2 The First Friend

Lorraine didn't want to join the celebration, but when she knew that there would be 'many people' she changed her mind. She couldn't hide from others forever, she had to face and knew them.

Lorraine tried to befriend with Dukes, it was hard at first until the only female Duke arrived. Thanks to Feng Lin's enthusiastic introduction that made everyone greet her with more respect and kindness, even if they were pretending, Lorraine was satisfied.

Later Feng Lin bumped into a friend and left Lorraine at the drink table. Zi Yan offered to choose her a drink and then everything went black.

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In the early morning, Lorraine woke up with heavy dizziness. Her mind was blurred before remembering what happened last night.

She fainted again! And in front of everyone's eyes!

Zi Yan, you lowly person, made her a fool in front of everyone.

However, thinking that last night's 'ice-breaking battle' was not bad, she felt much better.

She got up, ready to wash, but felt something was wrong. She looked around and finally realized that this was not her room at all.

"Qing Yue!" Lorraine yelled.

Qing Yue rushed in. Lorraine asked in confusion, "Where is this? Why did you change the room?"

"It's Duke Chen Sha's room. I originally said that I would wait until princess wakes up before moving, but Duke Feng Lin and Manager Anda both insisted that the newlyweds cannot be separated and must live together."

Lorraine immediately asked nervously: "Last night, Chen Sha... did he..."

Qing Yue's eyes were red and looked as if she was about to burst into tears.

No way?! Lorraine also wanted to cry. Did she just roll the sheets in such a sloppy way?

"Duke took it too far! He refused to share the same room with princess. It should be princess who's rejecting him. Why does he reject princess?" Qing Yue's voice was full of aggrieved sadness.

Lorraine patted her heart, relieved all of a sudden.

She smiled and said, "Maybe it's not rejection, but maybe he just want to cultivate feelings first. After all, our situation is special. We suddenly married and we don't know each other at all. It's better to take it slowly."

Seeing that the princess was happy and didn't mind it at all, she could only put this matter aside for the time being: "Princess, Duke Feng Lin said that today she will send someone to pick you up to visit her research institute."

Frankenstein was really impatient! However, it just so happened that she also wanted to know what they wanted from her, after all, what they wanted determined what she got.

Feng Lin's research institute was in a large military base.

In order to facilitate Lorraine's visit, she deliberately drove a flying convertible car and introduced places while driving.

Because the research institute focused on human genetic research, it needed to collect a lot of data and required long-term cooperation of a large number of soldiers, so the director of that year simply built the research institute building in a military base which was both safe and convenient.

Lorraine looked at soldiers walking on the road curiously, except that some of them their appearance was occasionally different from ordinary people, they seemed to be no different from Al's soldiers.

However, in just a few hundred years, they shocked the entire universe making countless troops that wished to dismantle Odin Federation returned with loss.

After visiting public military zone, the speeding car stopped in front of a three-story flat-shaped building, looked a bit like an open book at first glance.

Feng Lin stood in front of the scanner. After verifying her identity, the heavy metal door opened.

She stretched out her hand in a pleased gesture, "Welcome to Alicata Life Research Institute of Odin Federation."

Lorraine walked in with a smile and looked around curiously.

In the hall, people wore white overalls, every word coming out filled with professional vocabulary that Lorraine could not understand, seemed to have a strong academic atmosphere.

Feng Lin took her directly to the third floor by elevator: "The building has three floors above ground, most of which can be visited, and there are also three floors underground, it belongs to the scientific research area and is not open to the public. Let's start from the top..."

Suddenly, her communicator rang. Feng Lin glanced at the messages and said "Sorry" then immediately picked up.

"...What? The data is abnormal? What's the reason..."

Her tone was very anxious as if something went wrong with an important experiment. Lorraine said understandingly: "Go ahead, I'm free anyway. I can wait a while and we can continue the tour later."

Feng Lin looked around and there was no one.

She hurriedly said: "Walk along the corridor for a while. There will be a lounge where you can grab a drink and I will ask an assistant to pick you up."

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After Feng Lin left, Lorraine slowly moved forward.

As she passed the lounge, she thought for a while before decided to wander a bit more before coming back later.

After taking a turn, it suddenly became extremely quiet. The zigzag corridor seemed to have no end in sight. There were closed rooms on both sides and no one's around to be seen.

She didn't know if the air conditioner was too loud or the surroundings were too quiet. Lorraine actually felt chills all over her body, covertly nervous and afraid. She thought to herself that this level of courage she had was definitely not material for being a spy, Al Empire must have wronged her!

Just about to backtrack, suddenly there came a knocking sound. The silence seemed particularly horrifying, Lorraine was startled and her legs got all weak.

However, after calming down, she felt that the sound was like something falling to the ground, not something to be frightened of.

Lorraine hesitated for a moment before tiptoed towards the direction of the sound.

Behind a closed door, she saw a man lying on the ground in a dimly lit room, surrounded by scattered bottles and cans. It was probably that he suddenly fell down when he wanted to take something.

Lorraine immediately opened the door and saw that he was struggling to crawl forward, trying to catch a small medicine bottle that rolled to the corner, but his body was completely out of control because of pain. No matter how hard he struggled, he couldn't move a bit.

Lorraine hurriedly walked over and picked up the medicine bottle: "Is it this?"

"Get out!" His voice was hoarse and low, and sounded almost like a sob squeezed out from his chest.

Maybe because he didn't want to be seen so embarrassed in front of a stranger, Lorraine, who had been in embarrassment recently understood it very well. She gently put the medicine in his hand and withdrew to the door.

Lorraine stood with her back against the wall outside and said worriedly: "You can call me if you need anything."   

After a while, a feeble voice came: "Please come in."   

Lorraine opened the door gently, the room was cleaned up, bottles and cans were all neatly placed and couldn't find a trace of the previous mess.  

The blackout curtain blocked natural light outside. There was a lamp in the room.

Under the orange light, the man was sitting on the sofa at the end of the room with a camel wool blanket on his lap.

The sweaty soft black hair slightly pressed against his forehead, his face was pale as if there's no trace of blood. He sat upright, his eyes were clear and the corners of his mouth were smiling. His posture reflected peace and tranquility as if pain and helplessness had nothing to do with him.

Lorraine thought of the extinct edelweiss tree. Legend was it grew on the top of a snow-capped mountain, blooms in the wind and snow, tough and beautiful, fragile and perishable. She couldn't help but ask stammering: "Can... can I come in?"   

"Of course. Thanks to you." His voice was soft and deep, as sweet as the sound of a cello.   

Lorraine's nose suddenly became a little sore. She did not speak for a moment.

The man was very keen: "What's the matter?"

"It's nothing, it's just..." Lorraine scratched her head embarrassedly, "I just suddenly discovered that you are the first person to say 'thank you' to me."

As much as she remembered to now, she had thanked Dr. Mu, thanked Zi Yan, thanked Feng Lin, and even thanked Anda, but no one has thanked her. It seems that whether she existed or not had no meaning to others, really useless.

The man froze for a moment then smiled and said, "I'm honored."   

Lorraine tried to get rid of the inexplicable fragility and said with a smile: "I am honored to have this honor for you."   

He said, "I haven't seen you before."   

"I'm here for the first time." Lorraine couldn't help but ask curiously, "You are here..."

"Experimental body." He seemed to be afraid that Lorraine might be so he added gently, "Voluntary."   

Experimental body?   

Lorraine's eyes lit up. There was no doubt that she would also become a 'voluntary test subject', but she did not expect to meet her peers. She couldn't help getting closer: "What's your name?"

"Qian Xu."   

He was the first friend she knew! Lorraine repeated his name silently in her heart and became happy for no reason.   

"What about you? What's your name?" Qian Xu asked.   

"My name is Lor..." The words that were already on the tip of her tongue suddenly couldn't come out. At this moment, she didn't want to be Princess Lorraine's stand-in, she just wanted to be herself, but who was she?   

Her expression got blank and looked at Qian Xu at a loss.

Qian Xu said softly, "What's the matter? If you cannot say, you don't have to talk about it."

Lorraine shook her head. Her gaze fell on Qian Xu's camel wool blanket: "Luo, Luo...Luo Xun." She looked around but couldn't find something suitable so she asked eagerly, "May I lend your hand?"

Qian Xu was puzzled, but still smiled and stretched out his hand.   

Lorraine bent down, put her index finger in his palm, and wrote 'Luo Xun' piously stroke by stroke.

She didn't know what happened that made her alone and lose everything. She didn't know what kind of fate that this identity would bring to her, but even if fate was a thousand miles of desert, she still hoped that she could be like a tough camel. Step by step, slowly to find an oasis of her own.   

"Luo from the word camel (Luòtuó). Xun from the word searching (xúnzhǎo). My name is Luo Xun!" Lorraine solemnly explained, not knowing whether for the god of destiny in the dark to hear it, or for the hope that the person in front of her would remember it.   

Qian Xu's palm was cold, but Lorraine's face was a little warm: "My friend is still waiting for me, see you next time."   

Without waiting for him to respond, Lorraine hurriedly turned around and ran out of the room.

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Lorraine trotted all the way along the corridor and took a turn. Before reaching the lounge, she saw a middle-aged woman in white overalls looking around while walking this way.

Lorraine quickly stepped forward: "Are you Feng Lin's assistant? Sorry, I'm a little bored so I went around."   

"It's OK. My name is Anna. The director has something to deal with. Let me show you around first."

Lorraine subconsciously glanced back at the empty corridor before she followed her.

The two people talked as they walked. Lorraine pretended to be nonchalant and said, "I saw someone over there just now. He seemed to be very weak, not like a staff member."

"Maybe he's a volunteer experimental body participating in drug testing."   

"Experimental body? What kind of test?"

Anna patiently explained: "Many of us in Odin Federation carry xenogeneic genes, and the probability of sudden genetic diseases is very high. Although we have tried our best, not every patient has the opportunity to receive treatment, especially those rare genes. In order to get a chance on treatment, many people voluntarily signed up for trial subjects."   

Lorraine felt as if her heart was lightly pricked, not very painful but full of sorrow. "Then they... do they... have a chance to be cured?"   

"It varies from person to person." Anna was silent for a moment, and then said, "Our research institute is not only the best research institute in Odin Federation, but also one of the best research institutes in the universe. Everyone will do their best!"

Lorraine grinned reluctantly and sincerely hoped that Qian Xu could recover smoothly.