48 Hours a Day

The most crucial question now laid before Zhang Heng and Bai Qing was whether they should destroy the alien tree beneath Workshop No.3 or save people first.

Judging from the information obtained by Zhang Heng, these two places were quite far apart.

Emotionally speaking, when Bai Qing learned that her mother was still alive, she wished to get there immediately to rescue her. On the other hand, she knew very well that once they saved her mother, the glass factory’s aliens would be alerted. In terms of priority, the glass factory was more critical. That was because most of the aliens were gathering there, and if they were well prepared, even Zhang Heng would not be able to deal with so many at once.

If they went to the police for help, they had no way of determining if the aliens had infiltrated the force. Therefore, after hesitating for a while, Bai Qing said, “Let’s act separately. You go to the glass factory, and I’ll go to rescue my mother.”

This was probably the only feasible solution at this stage. Zhang Heng nodded and did not attempt to stop her. He just said, “I will give you both the locator and the camera. Just keep an eye on the place for now. Once I deal with the problem in the glass factory, I will get to you as soon as possible. Remember, make no contact with them until I arrive.”

“Yeah.” Bai Qing grabbed the bag that Zhang Heng handed to her.

After experiencing so many horrible experiences, she was no longer your ordinary high-school girl. The final battle was just around the corner too, and she had decided not to let it affect her anymore.

After Zhang Heng finished, he thought for a while, then said, “Turn around.”

Bai Qing then quickly turned around upon his request. When that happened, Zhang Heng took out the Lego blocks, assembled a chainsaw, and then inserted the Infinite Building Block to materialize it. While his fake stared at him in fear, Zhang Heng put the gag back into the clone’s mouth and started to crack open his skull with the chainsaw.

Once the brain was exposed, the thing in the fourth ventricle wanted to escape, but Zhang Heng quickly used a plastic box to scoop it up and put it into the glass jar. He cleaned up the blood on the ground and covered the corpse with a blanket.

He then handed the bloodstained glass jar to Bai Qing.

“If they want to attack you. Use this as a bargaining chip.”

Bai Qing turned around and was taken aback by the glass jar’s contents. The thing inside was disgusting. That was the last straw. She couldn’t hold it in anymore, grabbing the trash can handed by Zhang Heng and vomited in it.

“Sorry,” Bai Qing apologized between gagging.

“It’s okay. There is still some time left. You have to get used to being with them before you leave,” said Zhang Heng. He also informed Bai Qing about other matters that needed paying attention. After that, he put on a new set of makeup on Bai Qing before they parted ways.

Bai Qing went to find her mother, while Zhang Heng first drove to the river, collected a bottle of blue-green algae with a mineral water bottle, then returned to the glass factory. It had only less than three hours since those creatures ganged up on him in the school.

Carrying his bag, he walked towards the gates of the glass factory.

This was the second time he came here. This time, he entered through the front gate instead of climbing the wall, even nodding at the guard on duty.

Initially, the guard wanted to stand up, but halfway through, he sat down again. He just sat there and watched Zhang Heng walking into the factory. He met many workers along the way and recalled what he saw the night before, and they passed him by like he did not exist. As expected, they still behaved the same way.

If the bosses of other factories saw this scene, there was a high probability that they would cry. This was probably the working environment of their dreams.

Zhang Heng did not encounter any problems until he walked to Warehouse No. 3. As compared with last night, security here was even tighter. An outpost had been added, and a team of security guards stood there patrolling the area every five minutes.

When the leader saw Zhang Heng walking over, he said, “Stop, why are you back? It’s your duty to stay with that girl. You are not supposed to leave her side.”

Zhang Heng said, “I underestimated her. I don’t know what went wrong. She seems to recognize that I’m not the original Zhang Heng. She pretended not to doubt my identity and ran away when I was not paying attention.”

“She escaped? Does No. 2 know about this?”

“I called and told No. 2 about it. Fortunately, I managed to grab some of her hair before she ran away,” Zhang Heng went on. “No. 2 told me that I could start to clone her.”

Zhang Heng made a huge bet here. He knew that No. 2 was the person responsible for coordinating the operation. During his previous conversation with the fake Zhang Heng, he never mentioned the thing under Workshop No. 3. Zhang Heng figured that the alien tree would need something like hair or blood to clone someone.

It seemed the Lucky Rabbit Foot worked this time. The guard’s leader did not ask him any more questions after that. Not only did he step away from him, but he even took out the remote control and opened the gate for him.

Zhang Heng nodded at him and walked into Workshop No. 3. But the next moment, the other man reached out and stopped him again, with only one word.

“Wait.”

Immediately, Zhang Heng started to get anxious, worried most that these people would attempt to verify his claims by checking with No. 2. If they did that, his lie would be immediately exposed. After a while, two security guards came over with a rabbit.

The leader of the guards retracted his hands. All of them then entered Workshop No.3 with the rabbit.

Before they arrived at the underground entrance, another guard was already there to remove the can washer for them, revealing the secret entrance.

Zhang Heng knew that he would be trapped underground if his identity was exposed. All they needed to do was to move the can washer back to its original position to block the exit.

Without stopping, Zhang Heng followed the two security guards in front of him.

Zhang Heng could still smell the familiar and strange fragrance around him. The ferns from the Cretaceous period were still around. The stairs continued to descent, and at the very end was the door covered by the ugly vines.

One of the security guards walked up, using the rabbit as a sacrifice. The vines started to move faster and faster until the sarcoma on the branches eventually exploded, and countless tiny tendrils stretched out of it. Like a mosquito’s proboscis, they pierced into the rabbit’s body swiftly.

Another security guard quickly opened the door while the vines devoured the rabbit.