Chapter 53
Professor Chen's sudden outburst startled everyone. No one could figure out what he had said that caused such a big reaction.
"Professor Chen, calm down first. What happened to your apprentice?"
"Get lost! What can I do to my apprentice?"
Yan Hong looked at the old man who started to throw a tantrum, and looked around but didn't see the so-called apprentice he mentioned. Thinking of what he said before, Yan Hong blurted out without thinking:
"Isn't he so anxious because he lost his apprentice?"
It was just an unintentional complaint, but it instantly silenced the furious Professor Chen.
They were already accustomed to Yan Hong's tone of voice and didn't pay much attention to the content, but Professor Chen's sudden silence made them have some bad guesses.
"Professor Chen, it's not true..."
"Yes, Yan Ning is missing."
Professor Chen turned his head away, appearing to confess, "That day we encountered a group of deformed creatures traveling together. Yan Ning took the initiative to lead those wolf-like deformed creatures away, and I returned to the camp, but I never waited for him to come back."
Several people looked at each other, not knowing what to say to comfort each other.
There were a lot of distorted creatures, and even if they were in their best condition, it would be difficult for one person to escape from the siege of a group of distorted creatures. Professor Chen's apprentice was probably just an ordinary weak scholar, but he had led away so many distorted creatures alone and had not returned yet. The result was already written on the surface, but Professor Chen obviously did not want to accept this result.
It's not that I can't understand Professor Chen's feelings. Anyone who can be taken out of the base by him must be very important to him. Now that someone's life or death is unknown for saving him, it's normal for him to find it hard to accept.
"Professor Chen, let's take you back to the camp first," Tang Zeyu advised. "We can ask the people at the base to come and help search. It's better than just waiting."
"Bah, those freeloaders in the base are useless," Professor Chen said, returning to his previous tone. "Anyway, I'm not going anywhere until I find my apprentice! I'll just wait here!"
Tang Zeyu suddenly felt overwhelmed. Professor Chen had some relationship with him and was half his elder in terms of seniority. Now he appeared here for some unknown reason and refused to go back because his apprentice was lost. If he forced him to go back, he would probably never be able to live in peace. But just leaving him like that was not an option either.
In the end, it was only after Tang Zeyu had persuaded Professor Chen to take them to the camp first.
"Alright, I'm not very busy lately anyway," Professor Chen turned and shouted to the whispering group on the other side, "Hey! Remember to bring that deformed creature with you!"
Several people followed Professor Chen back to his camp, which was located in a hidden cave.
"We're here. This is where I'll be staying for the time being," Professor Chen said, lifting the covering at the door. "Remember not to touch my things once you go in."
Tang Zeyu looked around. There were many arrangements in the camp. It seemed that they had lived there for a while, unlike them who just slept there for one night and then left. There were not only rough and simple maps hanging on the wall, but also many dried plant seeds.
"Put the aberrant creature in the empty cage over there. Be careful not to let it escape."
Tang Zeyu looked towards the corner, where there were several empty iron cages of different sizes. He threw the deformed creature with its limbs trapped in there, locked the iron door, and then there was no need to worry about it anymore.
"Hey, Yanhong, who do you think this Professor Chen is?" Shaoxing Yang asked.
"I don't know, I haven't heard of him," Yan Hong shrugged. "Maybe he's just a powerful figure in the laboratory. Who cares? He has nothing to do with us anyway."
Chen Yunliang thought about someone in the base with the surname Chen who might be related to Tang Zeyu, and said, "It seems there is such a person."
"Chen Jinnian, the Chen family has countless branches. His parents won the genetic lottery after having several children. It's said that he skipped grades in school. Because of his outstanding performance, the family valued him and invested resources in his training. However, he has a bad personality and often contradicts the elders in the family. Later, he even broke up with the family. At the same time, because of his personality, he didn't do well in the workplace. After all, scientific research also requires social skills. If he wasn't so capable, he would have been kicked out long ago."
Chen Yunliang pushed his glasses and said, "Because I don't socialize much, no one would have noticed even if I had suddenly disappeared. I didn't expect it to actually go outside the base."
Although they didn't quite understand the many achievements mentioned above, they had seen that he had a bad temper. It was not just bad, but extremely moody.
Yan Hong nodded in agreement: "No wonder he's doing so poorly in the workplace. Who would want to work with someone like that?"
Chen Yunliang glanced at her and said, "But I can't guarantee it's him. It's just a guess."
On the way, I saw several people chatting with each other, so I looked around out of boredom.
The interior space of the cave is not small. The amazing thing is that Professor Chen was able to decorate the cave full of things under such conditions, making it look less empty. There are tables and chairs made of wooden stakes, beds made of the fur of unidentified creatures, stoves carved out of stone, and various tableware made of wood. As for some delicate objects that are difficult to make, such as iron cages, they were probably brought out from the base.
While walking around, Lu Shiyu suddenly noticed that there seemed to be something in the pot. He took off the half-open lid and saw a pot of unfinished sticky substance. It looked like it had solidified into a lump because it was completely cold.
"Hey! Didn't I just tell you not to touch my things?"
Professor Chen, who was originally talking to Tang Zeyu, saw Lu Shiyu opening the lid of the pot and immediately walked over angrily.
The other three were afraid that they would have a conflict, so they came over and were ready to take sides.
Lu Shiyu's gaze seemed to be stuck on the pot of vomit-like substance until it was pushed away by Professor Chen.
"What is this?"
Professor Chen, who was about to question something, was interrupted by the sudden question and replied with a snort, "Don't you have eyes? You can't even tell what you're eating."
"Food?" Chen Yunliang bent down and carefully examined the pot of unknown objects: "Is it fresh vomit or fresh poop?"
"Does Professor Chen still raise pigs? How come I haven't seen any of them for so long?" Yan Hong began to look for the pigs everywhere.
Professor Chen was so angry that he was about to pick up his trekking pole and beat the two men, but was stopped in time by Tang Zeyu and Chen Yunliang who were quick-eyed and quick-handed. One stopped the man and the other grabbed the trekking pole.
"Is that a deformed creature in here?" Lu Shiyu asked, pointing at the pot.
Professor Chen snorted without answering, obviously still angry.
Lu Shiyu pinched one end of the pot and tilted it slightly to let the liquid inside fall to one side, making it easier to see the large solid block inside. It was a claw with sharp spikes, but it was put into the pot and cooked whole without being properly handled. In the end, it turned into a sticky unknown object along with the other side dishes, which made Lu Shiyu frown.
"It wasn't cleaned of fur, chopped into small pieces, or even blanched," Lu Shiyu gasped. "Oh my god, this deformed creature died in vain."
Professor Chen was so angry that he didn't know how many times he had been angry today, and he snorted through his nose.
"I'm not a chef, how could I possibly cook?" Professor Chen asked, "Why don't you react to me cooking with mutant creatures?"
He once mentioned the idea of eating deformed creatures to other colleagues, but they laughed at him and said that he was following the trends of the rich and imitating their quirks. They also said that he was mentally ill for not eating good food and thinking about eating those disgusting things. As a result, he and those who laughed at him got into a fight and were all punished. Since then, he never mentioned this idea that seemed ridiculous to others again.
The person in front of him not only realized that the raw material of the dish was a deformed creature, but he was not surprised at all.
"What's the point of having a reaction or not? Everyone has eaten distorted creatures." Yan Hong scratched her ears.
"That's right," Shao Xingyang also echoed: "What a fuss! It's really rare to see such a strange thing."
Professor Chen: “…”
Now is not the time to argue with them, he endured it!
"You might not believe this," Lu Shiyu said with a wry smile, "but we've actually been eating deformed creatures every day along the way."
"What?" Even Professor Chen couldn't believe it: "Eat it every day?!"
Tang Zeyu said with some guilt, "Because I forgot to mention who would procure the food, I didn't realize there was nothing to eat until I left the base. But turning back would have been too time-consuming, so I ended up relying on eating the deformed creatures to fill my stomach."
Professor Chen glanced at him with disdain: "How could you be so unreliable that you even forgot to bring food? Are you really from a regular exploration team?"
Lu Shiyu asked doubtfully, "Aren't you eating deformed creatures because you don't have enough food?"
"Of course not," Professor Chen said, pointing to a few sacks in the corner. "My food reserves are still sufficient. I always bring enough food with me before going out. Eating deformed creatures is just my personal choice."
"I understand," Shaoxing Yang clapped his hands and said, "We ate the deformed creatures because of the situation. Professor Chen just wanted to eat them!"
Professor Chen: “…”
Although what he said was true, why did it sound so infuriating?
"Well, if you really have to eat deformed creatures all the way, then you've worked hard," Professor Chen said generously. "You can take what you need from those ingredients, and you won't have to eat deformed creatures anymore."
"Thank you, Professor Chen, but eating deformed creatures isn't difficult," Lu Shiyu said. "The only difficulty is probably capturing and cleaning them."
Shaoxing Yang smacked his lips and said, "Speaking of which, the taste of the deformed creatures is surprisingly good. I won't be able to eat them when I return to the base."
Chen Yunliang also said: "After all, the meat of wild animals is relatively firm, and it is somewhat difficult to find similar meat from the captive poultry at the base."
Yan Hong interrupted them: "Are you addicted to eating?"
"Don't you like eating too?"
…
The three of them were discussing their experience of eating the deformed creatures as if they were discussing delicious food, and they didn't notice that Professor Chen next to them was so shocked that he was speechless and it took him a long time to recover.
"Why do all your team members have pica?" Professor Chen asked Tang Zeyu.
Tang Zeyu thought for a moment and said, "They are indeed right. Deformed creatures taste much better than poultry that have never exercised."
Now Professor Chen looks at Tang Zeyu differently.
The last hope lies with Lu Shiyu.
"Tell me, are deformed creatures really delicious?"
"It's delicious," Lu Shiyu answered without hesitation, "Every time I make a big pot, it's always eaten up. And the ingredients are all very fresh, all slaughtered and picked that day."
Professor Chen looked at her deeply.
It turns out that you are the one who uses those deformed creatures to cook every day.
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