Chapter 33 – The Function of the Freezer

When she left the house today, Jiang Yushi never imagined that an hour later, she would have a corpse in her trunk and be driving toward the outskirts of the city.

What she found even harder to believe was that when she saw the body, she hadn’t felt much panic. Instead, she had felt a sense of relief.

However, as the car drove further away from the city center, Jiang Yushi couldn’t help but feel a sense of trepidation. How did Su Lifeng… plan to handle this body? Bury it? Burn it? Throw it in a river? Burying it was probably best, right? But she didn’t really know how to dig, so she wasn’t sure if she could be of any help…

“We’re going straight to your laboratory,” Su Lifeng said.

He hadn’t avoided any cameras along the way; he had even sat openly in the passenger seat.

While he didn’t know how long it would take for Li Yi’s disappearance to be noticed and trigger an investigation, Su Lifeng believed that once the matter was exposed, the police would quickly trace it back to Jiang Yushi. They would also easily discover that Jiang Yushi had been preparing a laboratory during this time and had hired him.

“Our meeting today was originally intended for visiting the lab. You went to the university, were harassed by a Reporter, shook him off, returned to the school gates to drive your car, picked me up, and then went to the laboratory as planned… It all makes sense,” Su Lifeng told Jiang Yushi in a calm tone.

“But…”

“There are no ‘buts.’ Don’t be afraid. You didn’t kill anyone,” Su Lifeng said.

Jiang Yushi couldn’t help but glance at him… Technically, what he killed wasn’t a person either. But looking at his attitude, even if he had killed a human, he would probably be just as composed…

Thinking this way, Jiang Yushi recalled Su Lifeng’s hints about the World falling into chaos.

She hadn’t been very willing to believe it at first, but now she was starting to. If things really turned out that way, then what did killing matter? Su Lifeng was only doing this now to avoid unnecessary trouble as much as possible.

While Jiang Yushi was lost in these thoughts, Cheng Xiaomei was thinking about them too. However, her train of thought was constantly being interrupted by herself… Why did they make her sit in the back seat! Hearing the faint thumping sounds from the corpse behind her, she felt like her nerves were about to snap.

“Don’t be afraid, don’t be afraid. It’s just a corpse. It’s not like I haven’t seen one before. I can’t let Su think I’m both cowardly and useless. Hold it together, hold it together…” The more Cheng Xiaomei muttered to herself, the more she couldn’t help but remember the severed limbs she had seen on the island.

I’m really scared! Waaaah…

After Su Lifeng finished speaking, he stared ahead and fell silent. He was sensing the changes within his body. That ball of fire was still racing around, but its speed seemed to be gradually slowing down. He could feel that everywhere this “fire” passed, his cells underwent a transformation. The most direct change was that his muscles were constantly writhing beneath his skin, and he could clearly feel those writhing muscles becoming tighter and tougher.

“That Xenospecies must have absorbed many organisms in the mountains, but he never had the chance to utilize them…” Su Lifeng thought to himself. He had won by luck this time, but now that Wisdom Species had figured out his capabilities. When she sent other Soldier Types to perform “The Cleanup” on him, it probably wouldn’t be as easy as it was now.

However, people like Zhang Hai and Cheng Xiaomei had both displayed characteristics of the organisms absorbed by the Xenospecies after becoming Mutants, yet he never had. Su Lifeng always felt this might have something to do with his own nature, but due to a lack of samples, he had no way to begin researching it. Yet, after absorbing this F-class Soldier, Su Lifeng finally felt, for the first time, that his physical body was about to undergo a mutation.

“I hope I don’t grow scales or sprout a horn or something.” His Exoskeleton couldn’t be upgraded for the time being, so whether he could face “The Cleanup” would depend on the results of this mutation. Su Lifeng felt both expectant and apprehensive.

…

“Alright, stop here at the warehouse,” Su Lifeng said suddenly, forcing himself to sit up after about twenty minutes.

“The warehouse?” Jiang Yushi asked, surprised.

Cheng Xiaomei quickly leaned forward from the back seat to explain. “It’s Lifeng’s private food warehouse. He rented a unit in a Staff Dormitory and specially converted it into a waterproof and moisture-proof storage space.”

“Is it the one from the agency last time…?”

“Yes, that’s the place.” Su Lifeng nodded. He caught a glimpse of Cheng Xiaomei’s expression and asked in surprise, “Why do you look like you’re about to cry?”

Cheng Xiaomei immediately forced a smile that looked more painful than actual weeping. “Haha, do I? Maybe some sand blew into my eyes!”

“I didn’t even open the windows,” Jiang Yushi noted, puzzled.

“Ha, haha… Ah! There it is, park the car! I’ll go down and open the door first!” Cheng Xiaomei jumped out of the car in a flash. In her haste to get the door open quickly, she even used her mutated fingers…

“What? You’re going to leave the body here?” Jiang Yushi watched in shock as Su Lifeng opened the trunk. She couldn’t help but ask, “But… even though no one lives here, it’ll be discovered sooner or later if you leave it here…”

“I need to use him for experiments.” Su Lifeng dragged the corpse out, finally revealing his plan. “As long as I study him, I can figure out the mutated characteristics of the Xenospecies that belong to the same group as him. At the very least, I’ll know what traits they currently possess…”

As for what they would become after they absorbed more humans, that remained unknown.

“Don’t worry, I won’t move the body directly into your lab. I’ll just collect some samples and bring them over. Every day when I leave, I’ll take the samples with me,” Su Lifeng said.

Jiang Yushi brushed back her hair and said, “There’s no need to be that cautious. Besides, regarding your exclusive assistant, I plan to let you choose them yourself.”

“Hmm?” Su Lifeng paused for a moment before saying, “Thank you.”

Though it was just an assistant, it was a small bit of authority that Jiang Yushi had secured for him by braving significant pressure.

“Don’t mention it…” Jiang Yushi said, a small smile tugging at the corners of her mouth. She looked at Su Lifeng as he carried the corpse and inexplicably felt that he looked rather decent like this…

“Ah!!! What am I thinking! There’s a corpse here! A corpse!” Jiang Yushi snapped back to reality, quickly clutching her head with both hands and shaking it vigorously.

“Yu-” Cheng Xiaomei had just opened the door and walked out when she saw Jiang Yushi’s movements and expression, causing her to stop mid-shout.

So Miss Jiang can make faces like that too…

She looked at the tissue in her hand and suddenly felt that she wasn’t the stupidest one after all.

Su Lifeng had specifically bought a large freezer to store food, though it seemed useless for that purpose now.

However, dragging a corpse inside to store it felt quite bizarre…

“Forget it, I’ll put it here for now.” After a brief moment of self-persuasion, Su Lifeng hoisted the corpse and stuffed it into the freezer.

The moment he closed the freezer door, a self-deprecating thought popped into Su Lifeng’s head: he had finally experienced the classic method of hiding a body, and he was even hiding a Xenospecies.