Eleven years ago, Irene Zhang first met Annie Vesper in a dimly lit ward with UV filters. Annie lay in a deep coma; her wrists were bandaged, and multiple organs had already begun to fail.
Annie rested quietly on the white hospital bed; her skin was pale and semi-translucent. In places, one could clearly see fine vessels beneath the skin. Her long black hair fell across her shoulders. Even in sleep, her brow was slightly furrowed, a sign that the body’s owner was suffering great pain.
Her face was defined by high cheekbones, a slightly narrow chin, and a strong, angular jawline.
The bedside monitor displayed values that should have leapt out as red alarms:
Heart Rate (HR):
Value: 135 bpm.
The ECG waveform was faint and chaotic, like a dying bird struggling with its wings.
Blood Pressure (BP):
Value: 65/40 mmHg.
Her vessel walls had long since lost their elastic tone due to a genetic defect.
Blood Oxygen Saturation (SpO2):
Value: 82%.
Her lips were full and slightly everted, taking on a cyanotic bluish tint that was oddly alluring.
Hemoglobin (Hgb):
Value: 3.2 g/dL.
Temperature (Temp):
Value: 35.2 °C (hypothermia).
Her body temperature often made the nurses remark on an abnormal coldness.
At 1.75 meters tall, she weighed only 45 kg—an almost skeletal beauty. Total blood volume: 2950 mL.
Irene Zhang had reviewed countless patient files, but before this girl, she felt as if a perfect work of art had been marred by Crowley’s touch.
“Prepare for Chimera Reconstruction surgery in 24 hours. First inject 0.1 mL of Atlantean Ichor into her—do not exceed that dose; her body cannot tolerate more.”
“Yes, Doctor.”
A pale golden liquid was introduced into Annie’s body. An hour later, her vitals returned to normal ranges.
“Observe for another day. Prepare the OR; rotate guardians every 24 hours. This is a very important patient.”
“Yes, yes, Dr. Zhang. I will arrange round-the-clock care. Don’t worry.”
“Begin exchange. Phase one: total 900 cc, flow rate 5 mL per minute,” Irene Zhang said, her voice carrying a hint of excitement.
The centrifuge whirred, low and steady. The room had that single sound and Karl’s heavy breathing.
A large transparent tube extended from Karl’s arm, blood dark red and viscous flowing through it—the iron-based blood of the von Reiss family in robust health. It passed through Irene’s base-pair filter, impurities removed, then, like hot flame, it streamed into the central subclavian catheter under Annie’s clavicle.
The instant the first surge of blood entered Annie, the monitor lines leapt violently. A faint whimper escaped from Annie’s throat in the coma.
“Any sign of rejection?” Karl’s lips had gone pale; he tried to sit up, but blood loss made him dizzy.
“No,” Irene watched the rising SpO2 on the screen (85%... 88%... 90%), eyes shining with fervor. “Her cells are feeding, Karl. Look—they are devouring your blood like a desert swallows a storm.”
Annie’s cyanotic lips shifted to a faint pink at a speed visible to the eye. At the same time, Karl felt numbness at his fingertips as the red liquid flowed steadily from him—an odd sensation of creator and created being intertwined.
------
Scene One: 48 hours later (Chaos and Reassembly)
“Dr. Irene Zhang, look at Annie’s readout,” the assistant’s voice trembled, a finger pointing at the wildly oscillating spectrum on the screen. Annie’s vitals had breached human red thresholds, yet inexplicably she did not die—instead the numbers climbed exponentially.
“Open the gene micro-projection,” Irene ordered calmly. “Yes, Doctor.”
A vast hologram unfolded above the screen. It was no longer the familiar double helix but a microscopic battlefield. The once-stable double helix was being violently torn apart; helicase acted like manic scissors, severing A–T and C–G links. Free high-energy gold ions (Au?) in the blood surged like golden fireflies into the nuclei.
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Onscreen, the human A, T, C, G bases scrambled in panic, seeking new partners. An A tried to forcibly pair with the newly injected Z (Zeta) base but was repelled by electron cloud repulsion, sparking quantum flashes. A T trembled as it wrapped toward a P (Phase) base but failed to lock.
Annie’s forehead beaded with sweat; a nurse continuously wiped her brow.
Irene stared at that chaotic battlefield, heat in her gaze, and whispered: “May God protect her.”
------
Scene Two: Six days later (Order and Miracle)
Six days later, the ICU was hushed. Only the instruments emitted a monotonous, reverent hum.
“Reconstruction complete.”
The hologram lit again. This time, there was no chaos. Annie’s DNA had self-assembled into an unprecedented grand architecture.
In the 3D microscopic view, P (Phase) and Z (Zeta) bases engaged via strong Hoogsteen hydrogen bonds, forming robust square tetramers. These bonds were tighter, more “greedy” than ordinary A–T links—like metal clasps locking shut.
Each tetramer layer rotated exactly 30 degrees relative to the next. Adjacent base rings stacked via π–π electron cloud interactions, magnetically adhering to form an infinitely extending helical tower.
Then a miracle revealed itself: at the center of each Z-P-Z-P layer, in the originally empty potential trap, a single gold atom (Au?) was captured. The gold atom in layer one and that in layer two were physically locked at 3.4 ? apart. When thousands of layers were stacked, these suspended gold atoms, via quantum tunneling, formed a continuous atom-scale “superconducting gold filament.”
This was no longer DNA—this was a biological transistor.
Exterior: sugar-phosphate backbone (insulating sheath).
Middle: Z-P-Z-P base rings (crystalline scaffold).
Core: single-atom gold chain (phase transmission line).
Four DNA strands acted like pillars, locking the structure into an inward-collapsing topological cube.
Suddenly, Irene noticed something. “Listen…” an extremely low but highly regular electromagnetic hum emerged from the instruments. It wasn’t a heartbeat; it was the intrinsic resonant frequency created by the potential differences between upper and lower DNA layers. The screen read a steady number: 7.83 Hz.
Irene’s pupils contracted violently. She knew this could not be a coincidence.
“Beat-frequency interference…” she murmured. “The gold atom lattices are misaligned by 30 degrees between layers. In the high-frequency dimension, they collide trillions of times, and in our low-dimensional world, those trillions of collisions integrate into a perfect low-frequency standing wave—7.83 Hz.”
She looked up at Annie, voice trembling: “This is the cosmic fundamental. Her consciousness is resonating with the entire system at this frequency.”
------
“Dr. Irene Zhang, I heard Karl’s sister is much better now?”
“Yes, yes, Mr. Drake.”
“You did well.” Drake patted the back of Irene’s right hand with his left.
Irene’s right hand trembled slightly.
“How is your mother?”
“She’s well, thank you, Mr. Drake,” Irene answered with a quiver; the edge of the tablet in her hand was whitened by her grip.
“That’s good. Don’t forget—when I found you, your project had been shut down by the highest human council, and they forbade you from ever working in medicine again. That would have destroyed your life’s work. I hear Karl’s sister can now resist cancer?”
Irene, usually calm and proud, felt her shoulders rise a little.
“Yes. Ordinary human DNA is fragile under radiation because high-energy particles (photons/electrons) hitting A–T or C–G bonds break hydrogen bonds, causing strand breaks or erroneous dimers (cancer).”
Drake nodded, inviting her to continue.
“Annie’s four-helix gold-based DNA has a different physical defense. Because of the central single-atom gold chain and the densely stacked π electron clouds, this DNA acts essentially as a conductor. When a radiation photon strikes the DNA, the energy is not concentrated on one chemical bond to break it; instead, it is instantaneously conducted along the gold filament, dispersing across the whole chain. Radiation energy is converted into mild heat or electrical energy and absorbed for use rather than destroying the structure.”
A fierce light flashed in Drake’s eyes. Irene noticed and turned her head slightly to avoid meeting his gaze.
“Gold (Au, atomic number 79) inside Annie’s DNA is a heavy metal with very high electron density. The gold chain at DNA’s core acts like an atom-scale lead shield. It effectively scatters X-rays and gamma rays. In layman’s terms, even if Annie were exposed on Mars, her DNA would not break; instead, it would be ‘charged’ like a photovoltaic cell.”
“How interesting—so her mitochondria won't break down?”
“Normal human mitochondria leak electrons (free radicals) during energy production, causing oxidative damage. But Annie’s gold system is superconducting; there is almost no free radical leakage, no oxidation—mitochondria don’t ‘wear out.’ Theoretically, her cellular metabolism could exist in a low-entropy perfect cycle; pathological breakdowns might not occur for centuries.” Irene spoke, feeling the imposing aura radiating from the near-elderly man—years of wielding power.
“Why ‘theoretically’?” the man asked.
“Because she is still fundamentally human; her four-helix DNA arose from a secondary mutation, not natural cosmic evolution. That carries a finite probability that the four-helix gold DNA could collapse inward into a singularity. If that unnatural balance is broken, gold atoms could slip from the lattice and the quadruple helix could ‘collapse’ in nanoseconds. Nuclear energy would be released instantly, triggering a systemic lysosomal storm. Cell membranes would rupture, protein chains would unravel, and the body could liquefy at the molecular level in minutes or hours.” Irene explained quietly.
“Like dissolving into water, then?” Drake asked.
“Yes. Yes.”
“Is there any way to keep her DNA stable?”
“Yes. Regular annual transfusions from her brother will help stabilize the state.”
“Why can’t Karl’s DNA undergo the same mutation as Annie’s?”
“Annie was born with erythropoietic porphyria; the pale golden liquid—the Ichor—happened to recombine with her DNA. That chance is on the order of one in a billion.” Irene’s voice carried a touch of frenzy.
“Hmm. I understand. Continue treating Annie; whenever Karl donates blood, reserve a portion for experiments. For your project funding, tell me what you need, and I will fully support you. Don’t disappoint me.”
Drake rose and patted her right hand on the back again, intimately.
“I understand, Mr. Drake. I will arrange everything as you instructed.”
“Good. Give my regards to your mother. This is a 2166 vintage.”
“Thank you. I will pass your words to her.”
Irene left the man’s room and could no longer bear to stay. She left without hesitation.
------
Twelve days later, in a sunlit ward.
The woman who seemed resurrected from an ancient myth slowly opened her eyes. Her irises, which should have been black, reflected a cold, mercury sheen, indifferently mirroring the world.
Her gaze pierced the dust and followed the light to the window. When the glaring sun struck her eyes, she did not flinch. Instead—buzz—the normally deep, night-black violet irises seemed ignited by a star. As the pupil focused, countless nanogrids flipped; that patch of purple collapsed instantly and exploded into a dazzling, molten gold.
Her lips parted; her voice was faint but carried an eerie resonance: “Brother. Where are you?”
(CH119end)
