Those who travel back in time

Chapter 17 Serum

"Mr. Li, but your safety..." The security personnel hesitated. For them, their boss's safety was the most important thing.

"Get to the lab! Now!" Li Qilin roared, then his gaze fell on Chen Qing, and he angrily said, "It's you?! You were here drawing attention while your accomplices stole the serum?!"

"How's the serum now? Has it been stolen?" Chen Qing didn't have time to explain. What he cared about most now was the whereabouts of the serum. This was something that had caused the apocalypse. Now that he knew it was with Li Qilin, if it had been stolen by someone else, it might have disappeared without a trace.

"I'll have to check to know." Li Qilin slowly raised his hand. "I have a cell phone in my clothes that's connected to the lab's surveillance system. If I take it out now, you won't do anything rash, will you?"

Most of the security personnel had left, leaving only two or three who posed no threat. Chen Qing put down his pen and peered at Li Qilin's phone screen.

Li Qilin pressed a few buttons, and the screen showed a picture of the laboratory. He could clearly see a glass dome shattered, with cold air escaping from it, but there was nothing inside.

"Was this originally where the serum was stored?" Chen Qing asked, pointing to the cover. "Is the serum missing?"

"Are you still pretending to know the answer?" Li Qilin suppressed his anger. "Do you even know what you stole? Don't you know how dangerous that thing is?!"

Without waiting for Chen Qing's reply, he quickly connected to the security captain's phone and issued orders rapidly but clearly: "Immediately seal off all exits, including freight lanes, fire exits, and parking lots. Only allow entry, no exit. Disconnect all external networks from the building, including backup satellite lines. All personnel must return to their workstations immediately. Security will verify identities one by one; anyone attempting to forcibly leave must be detained immediately. Technicians will analyze surveillance footage and flag individuals with suspicious behavior." Only after saying this did he inquire about the specifics: "Tell me, what's missing?"

"Apart from the serum, nothing is missing," the other side reported.

Although the hands-free mode wasn't on, Chen Qing's hearing was more acute than most people's, and since he was standing right next to Li Qilin, he could hear everything clearly.

"This is now the temporary command center. Everyone, please remain silent!" Li Qilin scanned the room, his gaze finally settling on the short-haired female assistant who was providing Chen Qing with meeting minutes: "You, immediately connect my computer to the projector."

While his female assistant was busy, he put a Bluetooth headset in his ear: "Technology department, I need to see a 3D dynamic distribution map of the building's personnel within three minutes. I need to know which floors and areas have abnormal personnel movement. Security center, transmit the surveillance footage from the key floors here simultaneously; I need real-time footage from every floor."

Finally, his gaze fell on Chen Qing. "As for you, after the serum was stolen, you neither tried to escape nor attacked me again; instead, you remained at the scene. If you were accomplices of the person who stole the serum, this behavior is inexplicable. Who are you?"

"I originally came to kill you," Chen Qing said calmly.

"You're here to kill me because I created the virus?"

"The consequences of synthesizing viruses are extremely serious, and I must stop it."

"I don't know where you got this information, but you're wrong. I never had the idea of ​​synthesizing a virus."

"Just because it's not there now doesn't mean it won't be in the future. Your visit to a virologist is the best proof of that."

"You...you really came to kill me without knowing anything. I didn't visit the experts to synthesize any virus; I came to find a way to completely and safely destroy the serum."

"What? You're going to destroy the serum?" Chen Qing couldn't believe his ears.

He believed that Li Qilin's development of the serum caused the apocalypse and that he used the time machine to kill people, but Li Qilin told him that he planned to destroy the serum!

"I was originally going to initiate the destruction process after this board meeting today, but you came and caused a scene, attracting everyone's attention and giving others an opportunity to steal that dangerous item," Li Qilin sneered. "You idiot! You may not be on their side, but you are definitely their biggest accomplice!"

These words felt like a huge rock hitting Chen Qing on the head; his brain suddenly went blank and the world began to spin.

If he hadn't chosen to kill Li Qilin, he wouldn't have attracted the attention of the security personnel. The person who stole the serum might not have had the chance to steal it at all. Li Qilin might have destroyed the serum today, then the zombies wouldn't have appeared, the apocalypse wouldn't have come, and his brother wouldn't have died.

It was because of his arrival that the serum, which should have been destroyed, still exists in the world.

He tried his best to go back in time, wanting to undo his mistakes and save his brother, only to discover that he was the one who caused all the tragedy!

"You...you're telling the truth?" Chen Qing asked, her face contorted with difficulty and a grim expression.

"If you don't believe me, you can verify it with a virologist." Li Qilin stopped looking at Chen Qing and kept his eyes fixed on the projector. "You still haven't told me who you are? And how did you know I visited a virologist?"

Chen Qing opened his mouth, but could not utter a word. He felt as if his entire soul had been ripped from his body, and his mind was blank.

It was I who left behind the serum that should have been destroyed.

I caused the end of the world.

I'm the one who killed my brother.

His mind was like a blank computer screen with three sentences flashing on and off, like the comments on a video.

"He must be the one who stole the serum!" After being in a daze for an unknown amount of time, Chen Qing heard someone shout.

Perhaps it was the word "serum" that jolted Chen Qing out of his dazed state and made him start looking at the projection.

The footage shows a common area of ​​an office where four people are confronting each other. One of them is a middle-aged man wearing a blue suit and carrying a briefcase. The other three are security personnel who want to check the briefcase, but the man in the blue suit refuses.

The security personnel weren't targeting anyone; they were checking anyone carrying a container that could hold the serum.

They're sealing off the building and verifying everyone's identities one by one. Everyone knows how serious the situation is, and they've all cooperated before.

When they checked the man in the blue suit, he refused to let them see his briefcase.

"He's not wearing his employee badge, so he's not one of our employees? Who is he?" Li Qilin asked, pressing a button on his earpiece.

"Mr. Li is a patent attorney. He has come to submit the original of a key patent application for the production process of Yiruiqing to the legal department."

"Connect me to the legal department..."

At that very moment, a sudden change occurred.

On the projection, the man in the blue suit suddenly pulled a gun out of his pocket!