Yu An was firm this time and didn't let him follow. He didn't know the way outside. Now that they were at school, Mu Tou even told him where the chemistry building was.
He can find it.
"Alright, be careful. I'll wait for you outside."
"Um!"
After separating from Mu Tou, Yu An stealthily made his way towards the chemistry building. He cautiously observed his surroundings, afraid of encountering a mutant like the Magician.
There were patrols on campus, and even quite a few zombies. But strangely, there wasn't a single mutant among them.
After sneaking around for a while, one of the zombies suddenly looked at Yu An.
They seemed to think Yu An was too human, but they could also smell the scent of their own kind.
Yu An nervously met their gazes. After confirming that these weren't stupid zombies coveting the heads of their kind, he wiped his face dirty, stretched out his arm, and was practically sticking out his tongue.
His zombies: "..."
The zombies' vacant eyes finally looked away again.
Mustering his courage, Yu An mingled directly into the roaming zombie horde!
A group of zombies staggered and stumbled into the chemistry building.
Upon seeing the sign for the chemistry building, Yu An immediately broke away from the group.
Meanwhile, not far from the university, Xie Chiyuan was fighting multiple opponents single-handedly, arrogantly piercing through one of them with his bone blade.
The young man's handsome face turned cold with a smile. He gripped the bone blade and slashed Xie Chiyuan with a backhand.
Xie Chiyuan looked at the powder in the air and the huge wings behind the young man, and smiled sneer: "So it's just a fluttering moth."
The young man's smile turned sour; he had stepped on a landmine.
It is a mutation of the Golden Birdwing Butterfly, one of the most precious butterflies in the world, and not some fluttering moth!
In front of Xie Chiyuan were not only the youth and the magician, but also other mutants.
The city was a no-go zone; Pei Si and the others were at the city gate, while Xie Chiyuan was surrounded by them. The mutants didn't feel they needed to stay at that school.
Furthermore, some young people were encouraging them to come along, except for Xie Chiyuan.
The aberrations targeted Xie Chiyuan, but no one noticed that the mushroom aberration that was often with the young man hadn't come here.
Inside the chemistry building.
Without the mutant guarding him, Xiao Jiu entered easily.
He didn't have much time; he needed to see Ruan Ke before the brawl over there ended.
"Why?"
Yu An, who also entered smoothly, looked at the floor in bewilderment and asked blankly, "How come it's so easy to get in here? Aren't there any mutants guarding the door?"
Chapter 25
Although there are no mutants in the chemistry building, there are still patrols and guards.
What puzzled Yu An was that all the patrolmen and guards were fast asleep, some even leaning against the wall, holding their weapons and snoring away.
As he passed by, he even reached out to check the other person's breath.
It's alive; it's definitely not dead.
Filled with questions, Yu An began searching for Ke Ruan one by one in the chemistry building. He didn't know Ke Ruan, but he knew a key phrase—
pretty boy.
The fact that this word can be used means that Ruan Ke must be very good-looking!
Following this standard, Yu An began searching for people in classrooms and laboratories one by one. Most of the laboratories were empty, and the classrooms were long gone.
We walked for a while.
Yu An was a little afraid of the dark. The motion-activated lights in the corridor were not the red ones outside, but the pale white light was still quite eerie.
"cough!"
Since there was no one around, he cleared his throat to bolster his courage.
Perhaps it's because being alone in this environment makes all of her senses more sensitive. Upon reaching the second floor, Yu An twitched her nose.
He always felt that he could smell the scent of white mushrooms.
"Xiao Jiu?"
"are u there?"
Yu An didn't dare to be too presumptuous, only calling out "Little Nine" within the designated area.
He called out for a long time, but no one responded, as if the mushroom smell was just an illusion.
At this moment, on the fifth floor.
A little girl with delicate features, who could easily debut as a child star, decisively pushed open the door in front of her.
"Hi."
He remembered his older brother's instructions to be a polite kid. So after having some fun, he added, "My name is Xiao Jiu, nice to meet you!"
Everyone in the corridor was unconscious, except for Ruan Ke in the laboratory, who remained conscious.
Xiao Jiu looked up and carefully examined the young PhD who was rumored to be able to take over Gu Ainan's class. He was not only younger than Gu Ainan in age, but also looked younger.
Time seemed to have left no trace on his face. He had a pair of very gentle eyes and brows, unlike Liu Zai's fake gentleness. The man in the white coat in front of you was genuine, with a gentleness that made people want to get close to him.
"Hello, my name is Ruan Ke."
In return, Ruan Ke greeted him as well.
Xiao Jiu entered the lab and closed the door behind him. He didn't reveal his identity immediately, but instead maintained a childlike demeanor, asking in an innocent tone, "Have you figured out how to make the nutritional paste yet?"
Most aberrations are products of the laboratory, resulting from the recombination of various animal and human genes, and some even more unsavory methods.
In short, since the laboratory is raising mutants, it will naturally prepare food for them.
The food included nutrient paste and nutrient solution that filled entire culture containers. After the outbreak of infected individuals, the mutants also took advantage of the chaos to riot, and several laboratories were affected.
The mutants initially didn't realize the seriousness of the situation; they were only focused on venting their anger. It wasn't until after a while, when they ran out of food, that they were truly alarmed.
Without the nutritional supplement, some of the mutants have started to eat anything, while others are still starving.
Ruan Ke's kidnapping by the Red Bird Organization is not, as many outsiders speculate, a conspiracy. He was only forced to do one thing here—
Make the nutritional paste and the nutritional liquid.
"We're almost there."
Ruan Ke handed him a tube of nutritional paste that was on the lab table: "Do you want to try it? Both humans and mutants can eat it, but humans will die if they eat too much."
Xiao Jiu blinked and said in a childish voice, "I'm a person, but I'm not afraid of dying."
As soon as he finished speaking, he took the nutritional paste and put it in his mouth.
"good--"
"What a strange taste."
Xiao Jiu, who was about to say it was delicious, abruptly changed the tone at the end of her sentence and swallowed her praise.
"This was made to suit the tastes of the mutants, so it's natural that people would find it strange after eating it," Ruan Ke explained, following his words.
The nutritional paste had clearly been made. In the blink of an eye, Xiao Jiu concealed the calculating glint in her eyes.
"Dr. Ruan, I'm here to take you away."
Xiao Jiu smiled and said to Ruan Ke, "Besides the nutritional paste, I have some questions I'd like to ask you. But let's talk about it somewhere else."
Where would you like to move to?
"Of course, it's a safe place."
Xiao Jiu put the nutritional paste into his pocket, his gaze meeting Ruan Ke's without flinching, showing no sign of anything amiss.
Ruan Ke didn't pay attention to the tube of nutritional paste, since there were still quite a few prepared on the lab table behind him.
The two, one big and one small, stood there, when Ruan Ke suddenly asked, "What if I don't go with you?"
Xiao Jiu smiled brightly: "I think you'll definitely come with me."
Inside the lab, tensions were running high. Outside, Yu An, exhausted from climbing the stairs to find someone and with legs cramping, leaned against the wall and sighed softly.
Where is he/she?
He wiped the sweat from his forehead and felt that another piece of evidence had been added to his list of reasons why he wasn't a qualified little zombie—his physical strength was lacking.
The other zombies are like perpetual motion machines, especially when chasing humans; they could probably run several laps around the city streets without even breaking a sweat.
He patted his chest and took a breath.
We've already found the fourth floor. There are only six floors in the chemistry building. He just needs to hang in there a little longer!
From the fourth floor to the fifth floor.
Yu An was so tired he wanted to just die on the spot. When he got to the fifth floor, the familiar mushroom smell from the beginning became even stronger, so strong that it felt like his little Jiu was very, very close to him.
"Xiao Jiu".
Yu An tentatively called out again, following his intuition as he walked toward one of the laboratories.
Xiao Jiu, who had just quietly sprouted mycelium in the lab, suddenly shuddered. The newly emerged mycelium vanished without a sound, completely unnoticed by Ruan Ke, who was tidying up the lab bench.
He adjusted his expression in a second, and then went out to open the door for his older brother.
The door opened, and Xiao Jiu walked into the corridor.
Upon seeing the cubs, Yu An rubbed his eyes vigorously. He remembered the cubs' juvenile forms, but he didn't know what they looked like when they reached maturity.
The pretty little baby in front of him was his Xiao Jiu!
After rubbing her eyes, Yu An realized the baby was still there; it wasn't a hallucination.
"Xiao Jiu?"