Chapter 22 – Infected
Ye Zhan almost spat out the tea he had just drunk in his mouth, he coughed twice in a blunder and worry rose from the bottom of his heart- infection was not a trivial matter, one could easily die if they were not careful.
This is the second branch of the research institute, and the inspection team occupies a sunny office of about 20 people. While Xia Mingyan, their team leader, was isolated, the rest of the members fished and paddled about, they soaked wolfberries in a thermos cup and enjoyed their retirement life in advance. Looking at their appearance, they don’t seem to be too worried.
“It shouldn’t be too serious, right? How did he get bitten?” Ye Zhan frowned.
“It’s a long story, but it wasn’t a mutant beast that infected him but an infected person, he did not get bitten” the researcher, Lao Yu, said, “The team leader was unlucky, and he got the blood of the infected into his oral mucosa, nasal mucosa, and eyeballs- all of it was stained. If it’s some kind of contagious blood, Xia Mingyan should be buried in the ground by now.”
“What type of infected person?” Ye Zhan asked.
“Hehe, if we can find out what kind of infected person it was, we wouldn’t have to be so cautious now……” Lao Yu approached them, lowered his voice, and looked mysterious, “Don’t ask me, we have a confidentiality treaty, and I can’t tell you more!”
This old slippery head…… Ye Zhan had no choice but to ask, “Then can you take us to see him?”
“No problem,” Lao Yu said, “Mingyan must be very happy to see the Third Young Master and the Third Young Madam.”
Ye Zhan glared at him angrily, as if he wanted to eradicate the feudal residual poison in his heart with a righteous gaze, Lao Yu was not affected at all, instead, he smiled like a Maitreya Buddha, “Hey, Wu Yumeng, you take them to see the team leader.”
“Okay!” Wu Yumeng pushed away the keyboard in front of him and stood up vigorously, “Then you have to give me half a day off!”
“You little cunning cub, although our team leader is gone, our lifestyle can’t be too relaxed,” Lao Yu spit out a smoke ring and took the time to play chess on his mobile phone, “Go and come back quickly.”
“Okay, okay, come with me.” Wu Yumeng smiled so much that all they could see was his teeth as he enthusiastically led the way in front, taking them down the elevator, into the entire underground space that was an isolation area. They passed through the first hatch, put on protective clothing, and then the second one, they got sprayed with disinfectant, and the third door was a buffer zone, the hatch was enough to withstand the impact of S-class beasts, and once it was closed, it would form a completely sealed space, and if necessary, the small holes in the wall would release poisonous gas, and the monsters trapped in the door would be directly poisoned.
It took 20 minutes just to enter the quarantine area, and Ye Zhan saw that there was a wide corridor inside, and the wall lamps cast an inorganic cold light, and everywhere was glowing with a cold blue. The vast underground space is separated by a large hall and four corridors, and it is quite lively with people coming and going.
Walking deeper with Wu Yumeng, one can also see that each isolation room has a complete set of furniture, a separate bathroom, and even a desk and computer. Some people in white coats who looked like researchers stayed in the cell, some were eating melon seeds, some were chatting, and some were playing Minesweeper.
With a “drop”, the door of an isolation room behind him suddenly opened, and Ye Zhan almost jumped up. The quarantine personnel locked up inside actually walked out with a big smile as he said hello to Wu Yumeng.
“Yo, my good friend.”
“Get inside, inside! Who let you come out casually,” Wu Yumeng hurriedly waved his hand, “There are outsiders here!”
“Oh……” The man scratched his chin and locked himself in the isolation chamber again.
“Ahem, don’t worry, the situation on our side is more complicated,” Wu Yumeng sneered, “You are not in danger, don’t worry.”
What’s going on, the entire research institute seemed to be filled with an air of relaxation…… Ye Zhan thought silently, sure enough, crooked beams above caused crooked beams below.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
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He saw a young man in a white lab coat facing the wall, sitting cross-legged and muttering words in his mouth. From the back, only his slightly long hair, somewhat greasy, scrawled behind his head with a leather band, resembles the tail of a chickadee.
“What is he reading?” asked Ye Zhan.
“He just finished memorizing the periodic table, and he should be memorizing pi,” Wu Yumeng curled his fingers, knocked on the heavy glass, and shouted, “Captain, shut up, look who’s here!”
Xia Mingyan slammed his head against the wall irritably, and let out a “bang” sound, “Don’t bother me!
“Mingyan!” Ye Zhan also knocked on the glass.
Xia Mingyan heard the familiar voice, his body straightened up as if he couldn’t believe his ears, he turned his head suddenly, and a big smile appeared on his face, “Zhan Zhan!”
“I’m back!” Ye Zhan’s hand was against the glass, and Xia Mingyan gave him a big hug on the other end, with too much force, and there was another “bang” as his forehead hit the glass but he was still smirking. His disabled right eye was half-squinted, there was a small pear vortex on his left cheek, he had parted bangs, and he looked very much like a Picasso painting.
“Oh my God, you’re getting more and more pretty,” Xia Mingyan praised him violently, his half-squinted right eye blinking quickly, “We can’t find a more beautiful Omega than you in Longye, when will you get married, remember to call me ……”
Since he became disabled, Xia Mingyan has had a problem, when he lies, his right eye will blink uncontrollably, and tears will come out. It was okay since he wore an eyepatch on most days, but when he takes it off, any lie he says will be exposed – and because of this, he was forced to grow into an upright young man.
“You don’t need to help me cover up,” Ye Zhan told him sadly, “Qi Yuan already knows about me pretending to be an Omega.”
Back then, he pretended to be an Omega, and it was Xia Mingyan, a revolutionary comrade-in-arms and accomplice, who provided him with a potion that made him able to do so.
Xia Mingyan opened his mouth wide, looked at Qi Yuan and then at Ye Zhan, and vaguely felt the subtle atmosphere between the two, so he wiped away his tears in embarrassment, “Ahem, to be honest, I am really relieved to see that you are safe.”
“You said that,” Ye Zhan smiled and showed his tiger teeth, “a scourge like me will last for thousands of years.”
“Then you two will surely live a thousand years.” Xia Mingyan smiled, and the depression of being locked up for three days was finally lifted, “Hey, how long do we have to talk?”
“Half an hour,” Wu Yumeng said, “there are still 28 minutes left.”
“Okay, okay, then we have to hurry,” Xia Mingyan put away his indecent look, “You’re coming back to participate in the master’s eightieth birthday this time, right?”
Ye Zhan nodded.
“Be careful! Something is very wrong lately!”
“Like you being attacked?” Ye Zhan asked.
Xuancheng is heavily guarded, like an iron box, and there are very few invasions of mutant beasts, once the invasion is successful, it must be an unimaginably powerful monster, it is impossible to sneak attack an ordinary person in the middle of the night, and then hide away without a trace.
“Yes, it wasn’t a mutant beast, the mutant beast is a statement to fool outsiders, and it was not an attack at all!” Xia Mingyan lowered his voice, “It was an infected person of a new breed that has never been recorded!”
Wu Yumeng coughed violently and reminded euphemistically, “Captain, is this also something that can be said outside?”
“I’ll pay for the leakage of secrets,” Speaking of business, Xia Mingyan behaved very decisively, “In this place where people eat people and don’t spit out bones, the only one I can trust is you! And this matter is related to the pro-guards, Qi Yuan, you will definitely be interested.”
Qi Yuan nodded, he was indeed very interested.
“It was three days ago when I had to work late and walked out of the institute alone……”
Three days ago, just into the wee hours of the morning. Xia Mingyan worked overtime until late at night, the research institute had already been empty, and he wasn’t sure where the guards had hidden away to drink. He walked out of the building humming a little song by himself, the dormitory was less than a kilometer away, where each researcher had an allotted apartment and because they often have to stay up late and work overtime, they have a curfew exemption.
Tonight seemed to be a little quieter, Xia Mingyan had just taken two steps when he suddenly heard gunshots and panicked footsteps behind him.
Xia Mingyan immediately took out his mobile phone and wanted to call the city guards, but suddenly heard the sound of rapid breathing approaching behind him, and a black shadow pounced up, “Help…… Help!”
It was so fast!
It was an eleven or twelve-year-old girl, whose body was as swift and agile as a bird, and in an instant she hid behind him, trembling and shouting for help.
“What kind of person-!” Xia Mingyan subconsciously covered her with his body, only to hear the sound of a “bang”, the fire flashed in the dark night, and the bullet hit the street lamp pole beside him.
“AHHH”
“Get out of the way.”
A slender figure slowly walked into the aperture of the street lamp, and Xia Mingyan saw his face- it was pale as paper, his eyes were hollow, and there was a black dragon tattoo on his slender neck, which extended behind his ears. On one hand, he carried the Twilight Gun, named for its ability to rip its targets to shreds, and on the other hand, he carried a rope and body bag.
Long Yin.
The captain of the pro-guard team, the villain who kills without blinking, the loyal guard of the master, and a terrifying Omega. Since the old man was attacked five years ago, Long Yin took the blame and punished himself, and he rarely left the research institute for half a step, why did he appear here?
Xia Mingyan whispered silently, “Don’t be afraid, don’t be afraid, don’t be afraid, this captain is not afraid of heaven and earth, and is not afraid of …….”
His right eye blinked frantically like a twitch, and a line of tears cleared down.
Long Yin raised his gun, “She’s infected.”
“I’m not!” the girl shouted, “I’m not infected, my name is Xiao-Yu, please, save me!!”
“She’s not necessarily an infected person, she’s conscious, and there are no signs of mutation on her body, I need to take her back to the research institute for examination!” Xia Mingyan’s body didn’t move, and said quickly, “I am the leader of the inspection team of the research institute, you can go out to inquire, there is no more professional person than me in the whole of Xuancheng, please believe me!”
“Get out of the way.” Long Yin repeated indifferently a second time.
Xia Mingyan still didn’t move. The girl behind him whimpered and cried, as fragile as a dandelion, and he knew that if he got out of the way, the girl would die. Could she be infected? Of course, it was possible, it was so dark that he didn’t check it carefully, maybe the next second she would open a bloody mouth behind his back, and his life would be over.
But he wasn’t going to get out of the way.
When he was a student, he once followed his mentor to do a survey, and the results were very shocking: on average, out of ten humans killed as infected, only six were truly infected, and the remaining four were innocent ordinary people.
And even if they are truly infected, many of them will not lose their minds, and there is still hope for a cure. In troubled times, people raise their butcher knives so easily against their own kind, and would rather kill by mistake than let go.
During the days of his investigation, he saw a homeless man suffering from epilepsy in the street, and he was immediately burned alive by other people pouring gasoline on him, he saw a mother throw her child into a ditch and drown him simply because of an unknown bite wound on the child…… In this cursed age, ignorance has caused too many unnecessary sacrifices.
“But we can’t do that, we are scientists,” he still remembers this with a sad look on his face, “we have to keep people’s eyes open, we have to protect lives and defend the truth.”
But the teacher never mentioned that the price of defending the truth is often life.
Long Yin was impatient, he suddenly raised his hand and fired a few shots with a “bang”, Xia Mingyan was so frightened that his blood pressure soared and he was paralyzed, and then he realized that the bullet missed him but the girl behind her was frightened and ran backward desperately.
“Don’t run!” Xia Mingyan hurriedly shouted, trying to grab the girl’s hand.
Too late.
Long Yin calmly raised the muzzle of the gun, and the twilight bullets flew wildly, and this time he didn’t miss.
The warm liquid sprayed on his face, Xia Mingyan’s head buzzed, and watched the girl die three steps away from him, blood splattered all over his body.
What’s going on……
Xia Mingyan wiped the blood on his face and suddenly smelled a fishy smell, not quite like human blood, but one like animals. His mouth was so wide open that blood flew in.
The most uncomfortable thing is that because of shock, his mouth came into contact with the blood which can be said to be infected.
The girl’s head was shredded and spread against the wall, Long Yin walked over, touched her corpse with the tip of the gun, and suddenly said, “She’s mutating.”
Holy crap. Didn’t expect it to get this gory. I do like that this story doesn’t fall under the usual abo characteristics for everyone