Chapter 49 – News from Gouzi

Inside the laboratory, Jiang Yushi could not help saying, “Well, well. Turns out you’re actually this capable. If I’d known, I would’ve asked you to step in sooner. But you just offended Jiang Qianqian. She’s definitely going to come after you again in the future.”

Su Lifeng turned to glance at her, then said, “The future? It doesn’t matter. And you don’t have to keep swallowing your pride around them anymore.” At a time like this, what was the point of enduring in silence?

Jiang Yushi pressed her lips together and shook her head with a bitter smile. “It’s not exactly that simple. She and I are cousins, after all… If possible, I actually do want to tell her about ‘that matter.’ But you saw it yourself. She really doesn’t like me. She won’t believe anything I say. It might even backfire if I tell her…”

“That’s not your fault,” Su Lifeng said after a moment of silence, offering her some comfort.

Seeing Jiang Yushi nod, Su Lifeng turned to Cheng Xiaomei and Shen Fei. “Xiaomei, why are you still holding the specimens? Shen Fei, come take a look at these.”

“Huh? We’re starting already?” Shen Fei asked blankly.

But the moment he put on a lab coat, mask, and gloves, Shen Fei’s entire demeanor changed. With a feverish expression, he used tweezers to separate out a tiny bit of minced flesh and held it up before his eyes. “My God… Su Lifeng-no, project lead, team leader… Team Leader, where did you get this? Do you have a photo of the original specimen?”

“This looks incredible. Some parts clearly seem to have been dead for many days, but others look like they only died in the past couple of days. For a single biological specimen to show such differences in decomposition, it would only be possible if fresh flesh and blood had been injected into it after death… And what is this sticky substance? I’ve never seen bodily fluid like this before, either. I really want to see what the original looked like. Of all the organisms I know, I’ve never come across anything like this…”

Cheng Xiaomei had already retreated far to the side. She and Jiang Yushi exchanged a look, and the corners of both their mouths twitched despite themselves. A photo of the original? If Shen Fei really saw Li Yi’s photo, would he faint on the spot while staring at the tweezers in his hand?

Qiu Yuming, on the other hand, looked excited at first. But once she watched Su Lifeng separate the specimen bit by bit and place the pieces into different test tubes, her scalp began to prickle. Compared with Shen Fei’s abnormal excitement, Su Lifeng’s focused gaze and the way he worked as though he were creating a piece of art made a chill crawl up her back even more.

“Biologists are terrifying…” Qiu Yuming thought, her body involuntarily shifting toward Jiang Yushi and the others. But what made her want to cry was that the moment she drew a little closer, Jiang Yushi put on a lab coat and went over to help.

She had no choice but to turn her pleading gaze toward Cheng Xiaomei… Huh? This senior seemed to be trembling too.

The two girls silently and tacitly moved together as fast as they could, then clutched each other’s arms tightly.

“Biologists really are terrifying… But it’d be too embarrassing to run out.” Both girls simultaneously teared up…

Su Lifeng was very satisfied with Shen Fei’s reaction. He set all the specimens to one side, then said, “Shen Fei, this is a precious specimen from Africa. While it was alive, it was infected with an unknown fatal virus… Don’t worry, the virus is no longer infectious after the host’s death. Your job is to study this virus, study all of its characteristics from every angle and find a way to deal with it.”

“A virus?” Shen Fei picked up a test tube and gave it a shake, his eyes lighting up.

“This research is extremely important, so I don’t just want results. I want to see results within a short period of time. But you need to understand that this is a confidential research project under Jiangnan Biomedical Group, and the African country that provided this specimen doesn’t want the sample to leak out either. So…” Su Lifeng continued.

“Don’t worry, Team Leader. I’ll defend it with my life! I’ll even keep an eye on it when I go to the bathroom! I won’t leak any of the data, either,” Shen Fei immediately promised.

Su Lifeng was speechless for a moment, then said, “It’s not that serious. Besides, the contract already has a confidentiality clause… But forget it. If that’s how you want to handle it, go ahead.”

After that, he indirectly gave Shen Fei a rough explanation of some of the Xenospecies’s characteristics, which instantly left Shen Fei in utter admiration. According to Shen Fei, unknown “viruses” like this were always extremely difficult to study when they were first discovered, especially when all they had was a corpse specimen like this.

Yet Su Lifeng had described an entirely new biological virus to him. It sounded bizarre, but when matched against the specimen in hand, it also seemed logical and well-founded.

“If only I could see a live infected subject…” Shen Fei said, his mind wandering with longing.

“You’d be better off not wishing for that.”

“Even if I can’t see a living specimen, we could still use one for experiments…”

Su Lifeng’s brow furrowed, and he quickly cut him off. “That won’t be necessary.” He had already done a live experiment, and the little white mouse’s fate was still vivid in his mind… Besides, there was no such thing as some so-called unknown virus. It was an intelligent life-form.

“All right.” Shen Fei immediately deflated, but then he grew excited again, staring unblinkingly at the test tube as if he were looking at a beautiful woman. “A new type of virus. Incredible.”

At that point, even Su Lifeng felt too embarrassed to keep making things up. After giving him a couple of token reminders to work hard, he quickly left him in front of the lab bench.

“Lifeng, um, I…” Cheng Xiaomei had just hesitantly stepped forward to speak when Su Lifeng’s phone rang.

“Hold on a second.” Su Lifeng gave her an apologetic smile, then answered the call. “Gouzi? You found something already? … What? All right, keep an eye on it for me. I’ll be right there.”

After hanging up, Su Lifeng said to Cheng Xiaomei, “Whatever it is, we’ll talk when I get back. Whether you have class today or not, stay here. This place is relatively safe. Go watch the surveillance feeds and keep an eye out for anyone approaching.”

“What about me?” Qiu Yuming blinked and asked, “I still have a freshman party tonight…”

“You stay too.” With that, Su Lifeng took off his lab coat and left.

Qiu Yuming stood there in a daze for several seconds before biting her lip and huffing, “Why should I?”

That said, Qiu Yuming still stayed. When she thought about how she had been constantly wanting to find Su Lifeng these past few days, and now that wish had finally come true, how could she back down? Besides…

“That virus or whatever sounds really mysterious! Xiaomei, aren’t you curious?” Qiu Yuming asked.

Cheng Xiaomei silently clenched her hands, then shook her head. “It’s better not to be curious about something like that…”

If you knew there was a Mutant standing right in front of you, maybe you wouldn’t say that.

A trace of worry flashed through Cheng Xiaomei’s eyes. She still hadn’t had time to tell Su Lifeng about the changes in her hand…

But Su Lifeng had looked very tense. Could something have happened?

Cheng Xiaomei thought back to the name she had overheard: “Gouzi.” It didn’t sound much like one of Su Lifeng’s friends or classmates.

The security guard in the gatehouse had just seen a car driving out on the monitor when he immediately stood up, opened the Factory’s gate, and saluted out the window.

But then his eyes widened, and he froze for a moment… The young man was driving way too fast.

“With such a nice car, you’d think he’d take better care of it. He almost scraped it. Sigh, the rich really do whatever they want…” The security guard lowered his hand and shook his head as he thought this, while looking up at the deserted Factory.

From the outside alone, no one would be able to tell there was such a modern laboratory inside…