Chapter 31
How is that possible?
Everyone was stunned. How could this alienation possibly stop halfway through?
"Pollution takes pain as its soil." Xiao Shengyun suddenly remembered this sentence.
If people don't feel pain, will the spread of pollution slow down?
The man inside the safe house also stared wide-eyed. The flawless plan had suddenly revealed a flaw, as unbelievable as a speeding train being suddenly stopped.
He wanted to trap Yue Ning again with an illusion, playing the scenes of Yue Jing's death in front of her over and over again.
Burned to death, shot, stabbed...
However, Yue Ning in the illusion remained calm, seemingly unmoved by everything.
Didn't she love her younger sister very much? Why wasn't she in pain? The man's doubts grew. He tried to recount Yue Ning's experiences at the church, but it was still no use.
The plan failed.
Xiao Shengyun left behind a message: "I have high hopes for Sister Ning."
He ran towards the safe house; having overcome so many obstacles, he couldn't let the culprit escape.
childish.
The man slowly walked towards the elevator. The walls could shield against pollution, and naturally, they could also shield against the talents of the awakened.
However, the next second, a loud noise came from outside.
A better approach than forcibly breaking through the metal panel is to directly demolish the wall.
The solid concrete was torn apart, and countless dense black lines poured in from the crack, quickly wrapping around the man's body.
"What is this?" The man's eyes widened as he tried to break free from the hair-like things.
The black threads snaked up from the man's limbs, gradually spreading to his chest, and then to his mouth and nose, like a black cocoon trapping a struggling larva.
"Waaah—"
The man was speechless. Xiao Shengyun didn't stay long. When he returned, he was first hit by a wave of heat.
He was startled. This was Huang Yu's talent. Could something have happened underground?
Huang Yu was hesitant to use flames underground. On the one hand, the flames would rapidly raise the temperature of the surrounding environment, making it impossible to distinguish friend from foe. On the other hand, in a place like underground, the flames would quickly burn oxygen.
He took out his phone, which displayed a message: "Come to the garage entrance."
Xiao Shengyun carried the unconscious person onto his back and into the elevator, which conveniently led to the ground floor.
When he arrived, Huang Yu was wiping away tears, Yue Ning was lying on the ground, her face pale, and Zhou Zhi was squatting beside her.
She appeared to be fully conscious, but this was merely a temporary respite; an ordinary person's body would be unable to withstand such a massive influx of pollution.
"Sister Ning." Xiao Shengyun walked to Yue Ning's side. Her heart and surrounding organs had all been pierced, and human blood stained a patch of the ground.
Yue Ning looked very happy; she had finally remembered everything that had happened in the church.
A giant tree rooted in the ground reaching straight to the sky, a crowd crying and wailing in a cage, and an archive containing a photo of the younger sister...
"Shengtian Building, underground."
In her hallucination, she saw the scene at the church, and the memories in her mind gradually returned.
"Hand me a gun."
She could live, live as a pollutant, but she doesn't want to.
Yue Ning felt that her life was a process of constant loss: losing her parents, her sister, and all her relatives at the orphanage and the director.
Over the years, hatred has driven her forward like a machine, never daring to stop for a moment.
I'm really tired.
But on the day she joined the operation, she vowed that she would become a bullet aimed at pollutants, forging ahead without ever looking back.
Zhou Zhi handed over the gun in his hand; Huang Yu's gun had only one bullet left.
"Senior sister." Huang Yu cried even harder beside her.
Xiao Shengyun took the gun and placed it in Yue Ning's hand.
She pointed the gun at her temple. Of all the contaminated creatures, the most terrifying are humans, because the human brain possesses the highest level of emotion and intelligence.
Yue Ning's hands are very steady, and her shooting scores are number one every year.
These hands killed countless pollutants, and in the last moment, they killed pollutants as well.
She pulled the trigger.
Yue Ning's pupils gradually dilated, and this energetic executor died just like that.
Her soul vanished along with the fire at the orphanage, while [the other person] left only at that moment.
"She went to see her sister." Xiao Shengyun patted Huang Yu on the shoulder.
He felt the weight of death for the first time. He couldn't describe the feeling; they had been talking just a short while ago, and the person had disappeared the next second.
Yue Ning, deputy captain of the second detachment in S city, died.
When news of Yue Ning's death arrived, the atmosphere in the operations department grew increasingly somber.
These past few days, pollution incidents in various places have already kept everyone on their toes, and then they heard the news of a colleague's death, leaving everyone with a bitter and resentful expression on their face.
No one cried; however, the day after the news arrived, Yue Ning's desk was covered with flowers.
The funeral was kept simple. Since she had no family, her body was cremated and placed in a cemetery managed by the Bureau of Supernatural Abilities.
Ye Ting stayed in the cemetery for a long time that day.
Yue Ning's information was filled out by her teammates. This time, no one laughed at Ye Ting. They bought a bunch of snacks and placed them in front of the grave, with sparkling candies scattered all over the ground.
Aside from this news, the "Shengtian Building" clue is clearly more important.
According to the information, the building is under the name of Shengtian Technology Company and was officially completed five years ago.
The founder of this technology company is named Yang Tianhe. He mainly deals in pharmaceutical products and earns a considerable income. He was once selected as one of the "Top Ten Outstanding Entrepreneurs in S City". His tax payments alone account for a large portion of the government's fiscal revenue.
What's alarming is that the operations center in this building is only five kilometers away, meaning the church's headquarters are right under their noses.
After five years of painstaking investigation, the person turned out to be only five kilometers away. This is a bit too outrageous.
Regarding the actions of the Rose Church, the various detachments of the Operations Department held differing opinions. After careful consideration, it was decided that Ye Ting would first lead the First Detachment to monitor them, and then a group of executors would be dispatched from the central command to carry out the arrest.
Huang Yu's physical condition is now under control, and after a check-up, he returned to the First Detachment.
Zhou Zhi returned to the research institute. His physical indicators were basically stable, but he still had a lot of work to do after returning.
“Junior brother, you’ve only been resting for a few days, and you’re not fully recovered yet.” Li Qianfang was reluctant to part with him on the day he left.
"Let go." Zhou Zhi threw the person down without hesitation. If he really cared about his health, he wouldn't be asking him to approve documents every day. What senior and junior brothers? They were clearly just free labor.
Xiao Shengyun took the people he had arrested that day back, and at the same time led the logistics department personnel back into the underground parking garage. They needed to re-seal off the contaminated area and record any useful information.
This time they entered through the elevator left by the church, which was the complete opposite of the original route.
As soon as the elevator doors opened, all I could see was black charcoal; stepping on it instantly shattered it into pieces.
"There's a lot of burnt stuff here," a team member whispered.
"Ashes," Xiao Shengyun said after thinking for a moment. These were the remains left after the puppets were burned.
He briefly explained the whole story, and the person in charge of recording typed on the tablet with trembling hands. Just thinking about what they were standing on made everyone wish they could just float over this place.
Upon arriving at the experimental area, Xiao Shengyun had the instruments moved away. Thanks to the fire-resistant materials used in the underground walls, these items remained undamaged.
After the process was completed, all entrances were sealed off with metal to prevent contamination, and this place became the final resting place for those puppets.
They rest in peace here.
...
After the instruments were checked and found to be correct, they were sent to the research institute. In addition, there were the fake roses that had been confiscated in the past few days.
"Leave your things here, don't stay any longer."
This wasn't Xiao Shengyun's first time visiting the research institute's experimental area. Various bizarre mutant species were soaking in a medicinal solution, and the air was filled with dense black pollution particles, just like the underground parking garage that day.
But he could clearly feel that the living pollutants were particularly restless today, perhaps because he had some fake rose scent on him.
Zhou Zhi was still wearing his white lab coat, standing quietly as if nothing was different here from outside.
Perhaps the fact that they had fought side by side several times had dispelled some of the doubts, Zhou Zhi only regarded the person opposite him as a newcomer who had just joined the action department.
"Do you usually do experiments here alone?" Xiao Shengyun shuddered. The space here was large, but it was filled with all sorts of cold, impersonal instruments, oh, and those hideous pollutants.
Looking at Zhou Zhi's emaciated body, he felt a strange sensation for the first time.
Only a little bit.
After they finished handing over their work, Xiao Shengyun, as if possessed, suggested going out to eat together. As soon as he said it, he immediately regretted it.
They probably won't agree, right?
This seems to go beyond the scope of social interaction between colleagues.
Zhou Zhi hesitated for a moment, then nodded.
He doesn't tend to reject other people's kindness.
The city center is brightly lit at night, with rows of shops illuminating the entire street, selling a wide variety of goods.
No one taught Xiao Shengyun what to say at this moment; was he supposed to start with "The weather is so nice today"?
To appear normal, he tends to be more outgoing when interacting with others, but there doesn't seem to be anything suitable to talk about now.
“This used to be an elementary school, not a shopping mall.” Unexpectedly, Zhou Zhi pointed to a building not far away with the words “Lejia Shopping Mall” written in large characters on it.
“I grew up in this area. My neighborhood is just two streets away from school.”
"It's hard to imagine what you were like when you were in school." Xiao Shengyun pictured a young Zhou Zhi in his school uniform, sitting in the classroom with a serious face, listening to a lecture, which made him want to laugh.
"Like everyone else, I would get out of school at four in the afternoon, and on my way home I would buy groceries for dinner, cook my own meal, eat, and then do my homework."
Xiao Shengyun's eyes widened. Back then, he enjoyed the privilege of being driven around by his mother, having meals prepared for him, and having his parents watch him do his homework.
Ms. Xu has taken meticulous care of him since he was a child. Although she may have been afraid that he would go out and cause trouble for others, it is undeniable that she felt warm when she looked back on that time many years later. Therefore, she finds it hard to imagine what it would be like for a child to live alone.
“Because they are all very busy, they have to take care of themselves.” Zhou Zhi noticed his surprise and replied matter-of-factly.
But none of that matters. He goes to school alone and lives alone. Because he has been quiet and reserved since childhood, he is often ostracized by others.
The first time he was cornered in an alley, the group of people were notorious troublemakers at school, some of whom were two years older than him and very tall.
Zhou Zhi was still young at the time. Although he was much more mature than his peers, his physical development couldn't keep up, so he got a beating.
When he got home that night, he told his mother that he wanted to sign up for a martial arts class.
When his mother pressed him for details, she suggested changing his school.
Zhou Zhi's mother, Tang Rong'an, works at the lighthouse and is responsible for detecting and monitoring contaminated areas. This job requires her to work in shifts around the clock, so the mother and son can only see each other a few times a month.
Zhou Zhi disagreed. Changing schools was too troublesome, and he subconsciously felt that this was his own business and he should solve it himself.
The second time he was cornered in an alley, he beat up those people. The beaten-up students went to the teacher to complain, and the teacher naturally sided with the students with good grades.
Today, school enrollment rates are much lower than they were decades ago; only the most outstanding individuals can receive higher education.
A higher college entrance rate means a higher teacher's salary.
None of these are the worst part; the most unbearable thing is the indescribable loneliness.
Sometimes, when Zhou Zhi watched his peers playing around, he felt like an old man in his twilight years.
He might even feel a pang of jealousy, because naiveté means you don't have to worry about anything.
But that happened many years ago.
“If my mom had known you back then, she probably would have nagged twice as much. I caused her so much worry when I was little. I was always a step behind others in learning things and I was slow in everything I did. The hospital almost diagnosed me with autism. But look at me now, I'm doing just fine.”
"But you can actually cook? I thought you were the kind of person who drinks nutritional supplements every day or buys bread and sandwiches for meals." Xiao Shengyun looked at Zhou Zhi's white shirt and found it hard to imagine that this person would wear an apron when covered in cooking fumes.
They seem quite cute.
"Hey, isn't this Xiao Zhou? You've grown so tall!" An older woman at the roadside flower shop seemed to recognize Zhou Zhi and greeted him from afar.
Zhou Zhi knew her; it had been more than ten years since they last met. She used to be the owner of the supermarket downstairs.
It wasn't that the two were particularly close; it was simply because he had a good memory.
"Aunt Chen." He nodded, as if to say hello.
"How's your mother doing lately? It's been so many years since we last saw her. You were only this tiny little thing back then." Aunt Chen gestured with her hand.
“Mom is doing well,” Zhou Zhi replied, his throat tightening as he uttered the name, as he hadn’t sung those two syllables in a long time.
For people of this age, meeting a younger generation they haven't seen in a long time inevitably involves a lot of small talk.
Xiao Shengyun didn't participate in the conversation. He wanted to be a quiet, unassuming person, but a familiar scent wafted into his nostrils.
He looked into the shop and saw a large bouquet of roses displayed in the center.
Fake rose.
The source substance in the body is like water, heating up and boiling.
In the residential area, a single flower can attract hundreds of pollutants. This large bunch almost made Xiao Shengyun dizzy. He took out his phone and dialed Ye Ting's number.
However, before the call could be connected, a body collapsed.
"Xiao Zhou, what's wrong? Call 120 quickly!" Aunt Chen's panicked voice rang out.
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