Chapter 32
"I feel like this meat has a bit of a mushroom flavor," Shaoxing Yang mumbled with his mouth full of barbecue. "Don't you feel it?"
Yanhong chewed the piece of meat and felt that it seemed to be true.
"It's a bit like King Oyster Mushroom," Lu Shiyu said. "King Oyster Mushroom is a mushroom that looks like meat, and Mushroom Beef is meat that looks like mushroom."
"It might be the spores," Chen Yunliang said, pinching the sealed bag and showing a relatively intact mushroom inside, which had been removed from the cowhide. "This kind of mushroom is very invasive and can take root in living things. The cow's current condition is more due to this mushroom than biological distortion."
"I object!" Shao Xingyang raised his hand. "Perhaps this mushroom is also the result of biological distortion. Then isn't the source of the cows being covered in mushrooms also biological distortion?"
"That's true, but it's not accurate," Chen Yunliang said, pushing up his glasses. "The cow might have been deformed beforehand, but it was the mushrooms that caused it to grow mushrooms and became the vehicle for the spread of spores."
Yan Hong looked at the two people who were inexplicably caught up in a debate and asked: "Why did they suddenly start a debate?"
Lu Shiyu bit off a piece of meat and said vaguely, "Deformed creatures are really complicated. I've only heard of parasites controlling their hosts before, but this is the first time I've heard of mushrooms controlling their hosts."
"We can't completely apply past scientific conclusions to discussing aberrant organisms, because they've already strayed from the realm of nature and science," said Tang Zeyu, taking over Lu Shiyu's job of flipping the skewers. "They're like random creations of natural organisms; they're absurd, yet they exist."
Tang Zeyu seemed to have thought of something when he said this, and his brows couldn't help but frown: "But there is one thing I can't figure out."
"What?"
"They told you before that the deformed creatures initially had extremely distorted appearances. Some of these deformed creatures were too irrational to survive normally, so they gradually disappeared during the base's lockdown. All the deformed creatures we see now are based on the rationality of the irrational."
"But there's another question that remains unanswered: how did those irrationally deformed creatures appear? If they could survive normally, it could be chalked up to a sudden acceleration of evolution. But since they can't survive and reproduce normally, how did they appear in this world? They appear suddenly, just like wild monsters spawning in a game."
Tang Zeyu told Lu Shiyu about this doubt, intending to hear if Lu Shiyu had any unique insights or could point out possibilities that he had never thought of before, but Lu Shiyu couldn't figure out why.
"Forget it, it's not a big deal anyway," Tang Zeyu said. "It's all in the past. There's no point dwelling on it. Besides, studying mutants is the job of the researchers at the base. Don't burden yourself with something that's theirs to worry about."
Lu Shiyu sighed softly, "If we must find a plausible origin for the sudden appearance of these terrifying creatures, according to the plots in the movies, it's nothing more than some monster that has always lived underground suddenly running to the surface, or humans developing some genetic weapon that went out of control, or something like that."
Tang Zeyu smiled and said, "If humans could really create genetic weapons that could cause this level of deformation in so many organisms, then maybe we could even eat fried chicken with a dozen wings and eight legs."
Before the apocalypse, there was a rumor that spread in the era when the Internet was not yet developed. The reason why a fast food brand had so many chicken wings and chicken legs was because the chickens they raised were mutant chickens. Ordinary chickens only had a pair of wings and two chicken legs, but mutant chickens had several pairs of wings and eight legs. This is why the brand had an adequate supply of chicken wings and chicken legs.
However, this rumor was refuted by the relevant person in charge shortly afterwards. If they really had this technology, they would not have needed to sell fried chicken long ago.
The rumor was passed down because it was too outrageous and funny. Looking at the rumor news in the light of today's situation, it is really a bit of black humor. Although the fast food brand ultimately did not have the technology to mutate chickens, chickens can now grow more than a dozen wings and several legs on their own.
"Hahahahahahahaha, my mom believed it at the time and refused to take me to eat fried chicken for a long time," Lu Shiyu began to talk non-stop as he recalled the past. "At that time, I even asked my mom if it was possible to raise a mutant chicken at home. That way, whenever I wanted to eat chicken wings and drumsticks, I could just cut a piece off the chicken, and after a while the chicken would grow the missing part back, and I'd always have chicken to eat."
"Did you think about this kind of thing when you were a kid?" Tang Zeyu asked with interest, "What did your mother say next?"
"My mom said chickens would poop everywhere in the house, so she wouldn't let me keep one. She also told me we shouldn't abuse animals, and that even if a chicken mutated, it wasn't the chicken's fault."
Tang Zeyu's shoulders were shaking from laughing, and Lu Shiyu patted him with a smile.
"Your smile is so provocative, haven't you ever thought about something similar when you were a child?"
Tang Zeyu thought about it and it seemed that something similar had really happened.
“When I was little, my grandmother told me to wash food with water before eating it.”
Lu Shiyu was puzzled. Isn’t this normal?
"Then what?"
"One time, my parents took me to an amusement park during their holiday and bought me ice cream."
Tang Zeyu spread his hands and said, "Then I remembered what my grandma said before. I took the ice cream to the bathroom to wash it. In the end, only the ice cream cone was left. I went back and told my parents that the ice cream was eaten by the water."
“Hahahahahahahahahahaha,” Lu Shiyu laughed so hard that he shrank into a ball. “You’re much more outrageous than me! Hahahahahahahahaha.”
Tang Zeyu felt a little embarrassed for once, and defended herself, "I was only four years old at the time. It's normal for children not to understand."
A subtle atmosphere gradually formed between the two of them, and even Shaoxing Yang and Chen Yunliang, who were arguing endlessly, sensed something unusual and stopped.
Yan Hong bit off the meat on the skewer with an expressionless face and said, "Do you feel that there seems to be something strange about those two?"
Shaoxing Yang also felt a little bit, but couldn't put his finger on it.
"That's not what the captain said when he spoke to us, right?"
Chen Yunliang silently lowered his head and took a bite of the skewer, when he suddenly felt someone poking him.
"Hey, Chen Yunliang, don't you always think you're smart? Tell me, isn't this a bit strange?"
Chen Yunliang angrily waved Shao Xingyang's hand away and said, "If you still want to continue to have hot meals every day, then don't meddle in other people's business."
"Huh? What's the connection between the two?"
Not only did Shaoxing Yang not get an answer, but he was also confused by Chen Yunliang's words in the end.
"I understand!" Yan Hong suddenly slapped her thigh, and Chen Yunliang couldn't help but look over.
"The captain must be trying to build a good relationship with Lu Shiyu so he can get him to give a discount on this order when he gets back! The captain must be trying to use his emotions to bargain! That's too much!"
Shao Xingyang took only a second to accept Yan Hong's explanation. He said indignantly, "How could the captain do this? Lu Shiyu has been following me all the way here, and he has made great contributions and worked hard. He actually wants to deduct his wages. This is simply the behavior of a capitalist!"
"No, I have to talk to the captain."
Chen Yunliang immediately grabbed one of them with one hand, and it took a lot of effort to prevent the two from directly intruding into the delicate atmosphere between the two.
Two idiots!
After listening to the conversation between the two, Chen Yunliang almost couldn't breathe. He finally managed to stop the two angry people.
"Listen, no matter what you think, that's not the case," Chen Yunliang pushed the two back to their seats and warned them in a low voice, "What happens to them is their private matter. Don't interfere or meddle in other people's business. Don't cause any trouble for me!"
Shao Xingyang was also angry when he heard this: "Chen Yunliang, can you at least have some conscience? You can do something like the captain suddenly using emotions to bargain when paying for the work done..."
"I told you it's not like that!" The vein on Chen Yunliang's forehead twitched. "If you dare to disturb them, I guarantee that your training will at least triple when you return to the base. Don't let me get in trouble when that happens."
When they heard that the training would be tripled, the two people who were originally passionate shut up instantly.
Chen Yunliang breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that the two had behaved themselves. He sat back in his seat tiredly, looked at the two people who were still in their own world not far away, and sighed tiredly.
Before going to bed, everyone washed their spore-stained clothes with lake water, found a long wooden pole, and hung the clothes up to let the campfire dry them, so that they could wear them the next morning.
Early the next morning
Chen Yunliang was awakened by the shouting. In a daze, he felt for his glasses and put them on, then climbed out of the sleeping bag with a frown.
"Why is it so noisy..."
After crawling out of the sleeping bag, Chen Yunliang found that there was no one around, only messy sleeping bags that had not been tidied up on the ground.
Thinking that he might have encountered some emergency, Chen Yunliang hurriedly picked up his weapon and walked towards the direction of the sound, maintaining a posture ready to fire a crossbow arrow at any time. Chen Yunliang passed through the bushes and saw several teammates standing by the lake safely.
Lu Shiyu was the first to notice Chen Yunliang who had hurried over, and called him over to take a look.
Chen Yunliang, who had not yet figured out the situation, approached the few people with a head full of doubts.
"Chen Yunliang, why are you here without even putting on your clothes?" Shao Xingyang looked Chen Yunliang up and down. "Hey, you're not even wearing shoes. What's the rush?"
"Hmph, you're still so nervous," Chen Yunliang said, releasing the trigger of his crossbow. "I woke up and found you were all gone. I thought something had happened, but you all just gathered here to look at the lake."
Just as Chen Yunliang was about to go back, he was stopped by Chen Yunliang, who pointed at the lake and said, "Hey, Chen Yunliang, look at the lake. There are so many fish floating on it!"
Chen Yunliang casually swept his eyes across the lake. There were many fish floating belly up on the quiet lake water, and without exception, they were all motionless.
"They were fine last night, how come they are all dead this morning?" Yan Hong wondered as she looked at the dead fish on the lake.
"Did you hear any strange noises last night?" Lu Shiyu asked.
Yan Hong and Chen Yunliang, who were in charge of the night watch last night, shook their heads frantically.
"No, it was very quiet last night."
"That's strange," Lu Shiyu thought, resting his finger on his chin. "It stands to reason that killing so many fish at once wouldn't make any noise."
Chen Yunliang walked to the lake, squatted down and observed the fish floating on the water with their belly turned upside down. There were no external injuries on the fish, which ruled out the possibility of fighting with each other or being attacked by other deformed creatures. Noticing the small, barely noticeable yellow spots next to the fish, Chen Yunli already had a rough guess in his mind.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
