Chapter 372 – Actually, I’m the Mascot

As Ling Mo and the others departed, Ban Yue was also in the corridor of the experimental building, hoisting the body of an old lady zombie on her shoulder.

In her hand, she held a scalpel, casting a satisfied glance at the wall that had been scraped clean. With the tip of her foot, she hooked a bag off the ground and tossed it into the air to catch.

The bag contained all the scraped-off wall plaster and every bit of evidence Ban Yue could find—bodies, of course, were not included.

“Hmph, the best crime scene cleaner of the year, that’s me! Come to think of it, do humans have this job? They must, otherwise how are all those crime scenes handled?”

Ban Yue chuckled with delight, then cocked her head, listening to the sounds downstairs: “I should be going, too.”

She hadn’t gone far when she suddenly sniffed the air, then moved to the side of a figure lying on the ground. Lifting the person, she muttered, “Now I have to clean up this human’s mess… Wait, something’s off. How could he leave so confidently? Did he calculate that I would cover his tracks… Damn cunning humans.”

Ban Yue was conflicted for a moment but finally stomped her foot and dashed toward the window: “Forget it, I can’t leave my kind to be studied by those humans.”

As she neared the window, she leaped fiercely, jumping straight out of the open window.

Just as her figure vanished, several fully armed soldiers burst into the corridor with their guns ready.

“Report, no one’s here,” a soldier spoke into the communicator, but as he finished, he noticed the walls.

He walked to the intersection, puzzled, and touched the wall: “Hey, look at this. The wall seems… thinner? Has someone scraped it?”

Another soldier took a deep breath: “Strange, there’s a smell of blood.” He looked up and around but couldn’t find a trace of blood, although he did notice that both the ceiling and the floor had scrape marks, “Someone has cleaned up here. The question is, who did it and how much time did it take?”

“I knew the intruder couldn’t be zombies,” a soldier snorted, “Have you ever seen zombies that clean up a battlefield?”

The situation in the laboratory was quickly reported to Su Qianrou, who listened expressionlessly before tossing the Communicator aside, “Alert the patrol team to stay sharp. And send a squad to the mountain edge. The more I think about it, the more I’m convinced that’s the only way she could have infiltrated.”

Catching the Communicator was a seemingly innocent girl with glasses, who stammered, “But… but zombies wouldn’t take such a detour, right…?”

“What did you say?” Su Qianrou turned to glance at her.

“Because, zombies don’t have that kind of intelligence. We should be searching the entire city now, not just focusing on the mountains,” the girl with glasses continued.

The driver in front shivered with dread, unable to resist glancing at the young girl in the rearview mirror. “Miss, why do you keep provoking Chief of Staff Su every now and then? Even if you’re seeking death, at least spare a thought for my poor heart…”

Su Qianrou flashed a gentle smile, reached over to the girl’s shoulder, drawing close, her upturned eyes fixating on her, voice equally soft, “Li Wei, tell me, do you think what I’m doing is official business or a personal matter?”

“Ah?” Li Wei was taken aback, hesitantly replied, “It must be… official business…”

“Wrong. It’s just a little something I arranged out of boredom, then spent some time playing with a zombie. Of course, many people… including you, don’t believe it was the work of zombies. That’s alright; at least now I know that the intelligence of zombies has improved significantly. But… since most people think it was the act of human survivors, we might as well do something about it.”

Su Qianrou leaned back, arms wrapped around her ample chest, “I find you quite interesting, that’s why I keep you close. After all, you were one of the conditions mentioned by that Psychic, sort of a memento from our first collaboration.”

“Memento…” Li Wei couldn’t help but look down at herself, realizing she had been categorized as an object…

“There are some things you can’t just do because you want to,” Su Qianrou continued. “Like that city-wide search you mentioned… I don’t have that much authority.”

“When you sit in a position that draws everyone’s attention, remember, not all those watching are wishing you well. Many of them are searching for a chance to pull you down,” Su Qianrou winked at her.

Li Wei shivered under her gaze, slowly picking up the Communicator, “I… I’ll notify them right away…”

“Good, then we’ll go fulfill my duties as Chief of Staff.” Su Qianrou lifted her hat, shaking her beautiful black curls.

“Where to?” Li Wei asked.

Su Qianrou smiled faintly, “To the most bustling place to make a show of presence, to prove I’m indeed in a hurry.”

“That’s fulfilling duties?”

“Mascot, what else do you think a Chief of Staff does?”

“Can you not say such things in front of me? It’s a lot of pressure, you know…” The driver wiped another bead of cold sweat, lamenting inwardly.

Meanwhile, inside the quarantine zone of City A, the atmosphere had turned extremely tense.

The occasional passing car, the patrol teams seen everywhere on the streets all contributed to an aura of grim severity.

A night of continuous upheaval finally brought a stroke of luck.

Fog rolled into City A, obscuring the moonlight and impairing visibility.

“Dark night with high winds is good for escape,” Ling Mo remarked.

Minutes later, he finally returned to the vicinity of the inn with the experimental subjects and Yuwen Xuan in tow.

Despite the burden of his two charges and the need to avoid the patrolling soldiers, Ling Mo’s sprint back took half the time it did to get there.

“Wait a second.” Ling Mo turned his head to glance at Yuwen Xuan, then looked around, “Let’s find you some clothes first; it’s indecent for you to be like this.”

As they tiptoed to the main entrance of the inn, the gate swung open as if it had foreseen their arrival, and Ye Lian’s head popped out from behind it: “Ling Mo…”

“Bang!”

Ling Mo tossed Yuwen Xuan inside, then carried the experimental subject over the threshold, signaling Ye Lian to quickly close the door.

Xia Na and Li Ya Lin were waiting in the courtyard, and they looked somewhat surprised to see them in such a disheveled state.

“Ling Mo, why did you bring back a corpse?” Xia Na sniffed and asked after taking a breath.

“Our catch for tonight… is him,” Ling Mo briefly explained the situation. However, he didn’t mention anything about Ban Yue.

Li Ya Lin turned her gaze to Yuwen Xuan and then stepped back silently with a strange expression on her face.

“Ya Lin, please don’t look at me like that, okay? It’s not what you think…” Yuwen Xuan, leaning on the door, slowly got up, pointing at his tightly stretched qipao, a picture of misery.

“Well, his clothes were ruined, so I had to bring him back naked. Sigh, there were no other clothing stores around here except for the qipao shop, so we just had to make do,” Ling Mo said casually.

Yuwen Xuan was nodding vigorously at first, but upon hearing the end, he couldn’t help but protest: “Why does it have to be a women’s clothing store, hey! I am a handsome man, not some cute boy!”

“You’ve insulted both of those terms…” Ling Mo commented dryly, then swiftly changed the subject, “It seems that someone in your upper ranks might have predicted this situation and made some preparations. The alarm, and the quick response of the military.”

“That’s a sharp change of topic!” Yuwen Xuan was taken aback, then nodded, “It does look like that. But when I went to headquarters today, I didn’t hear anything about it.”

“I guess these are personal arrangements. After all, those who don’t believe in a zombie invasion are definitely in the majority, so it’s very likely that only someone with power made some moves in advance. If it was mentioned before it happened, it probably wouldn’t have garnered much support, especially during such a special period,” Ling Mo speculated.