Translator: ThatLazyPotato
Translation Checker: Rin
Editor: EllieKit
“Let go of me, let go.” Lu Yan swung his legs toward Bai Chunian’s waist. Bai Chunian let go of Lu Yan’s hand in time to stop his kick.
“Young Master, look at me.” Bai Chunian propped his hands on his knees and leaned over to show him the top of his head, the ears popping out from his head moved slightly. “How am I like your family?”
“It’s not like you need to be biological.” Lu Yan held his chin and thought seemingly serious, and suddenly his eyes widened. “Lion… Could you be Uncle Xia’s…”
Bai Chunian pinched both sides of his cheek and pulled on them. “Are you crazy, we’re not even the same breed. How is a mountain lion the same as my purebred white lion… Wait, I didn’t mean to look down on the major, I just want to say you’re a little idiot.”
“Then what do you mean by this?” Lu Yan took out a recording pen from his pants pocket and pressed the play button in front of Bai Chunian.
Uncle Jin came from the recorder, “Look, your son let the fish spank him.”
Seeing that Bai Chunian had no reaction, Lu Yan replayed it.
“Look, your son let the fish spank him.”
The atmosphere in the office suddenly became quiet. After the recording was played twice, even Rimbaud had understood what was being said.
Rimbaud reclined on the sofa, holding his head, he smiled calmly. “I was the one who spanked him, what’s he gonna do about it?”
Lu Yan looked at Bai Chunian with scorching eyes, waiting for his answer.
“It’s just something he said in passing, you don’t have to take it to heart.” Bai Chunian raised his hand, wanting to take the recording pen several times, but put it back down again. “I was picked up by Uncle Jin from an underground boxing ring.”
“I forgot how many matches I played, I only remember that the last opponent was a brown bear experimental subject who was probably bought by a rich boss for entertainment. It wasn’t that I couldn’t beat them, but I hadn’t drank water for two days, and I was also a little tired… Uncle Jin chose me and took me away, while the president sent me to the hospital to treat my injuries.”
Lu Yan looked up at him suspiciously. He couldn’t imagine the kind of dirty boxing ring Bai Chunian had described. He could only use his poor experience to guess that it was a big room like the combat classroom on Greenfly Island, with the walls being black on all four sides.
“You’ve never seen one, right?” Bai Chunian put his hands in his pockets and looked down at him relaxedly. “Those who lost the last round, their bones were still sticking out of their thighs and chests. There were some who were still breathing and were directly swept to the corner by the sweeper with a broom, with no one usually coming to pick them up. When the matches are over, they’ll be piled together and thrown in the incinerator to burn. The audience below all wore masks. The scene was even wilder than concerts; we were like stars, and the spotlights were on us, roasting us. When you stand in the ring, your mind goes blank. Pain and tiredness—you won’t be able to feel them. Our single strongest desire was to get over it quickly and go to the bathroom sink for a sip of ice water.”
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.
“…” Lu Yan rubbed his elbow nervously.
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“Y-you, it’s not like I came here to divide the family property with you.” Lu Yan turned his head and muttered, “I finally managed to be able to be an older brother.”
“In any case, I have no blood relationship with you. Even if there is, you won’t be the older one.” Bai Chunian spread out his hand toward him. “Students are not allowed to carry recording equipment during non-mission periods. Hand it over.”
“Tsk, here.” Unconvinced, Lu Yan took it out of his pocket, slapped the recording pen into Bai Chunian’s hand, turned around and ran away, leaving a sentence, “I’m going upstairs!”
Bai Chunian weighed the recording pen in his hand, casually put it in his pocket, then sat beside Rimbaud.
Rimbaud put his hand on Bai Chunian’s shoulder and pinched it. He leaned over, the tip of his nose lightly rubbed against Bai Chunian’s cheek. “You look happy.”
“I’m not.”
Rimbaud took out the recording pen from his pocket and twirled it a few times between his fingers.
Bai Chunian’s eyes were subconsciously drawn to the recording pen on Rimbaud’s fingertips.
Rimbaud looked into his eyes and put the end of the recording pen into his mouth.
“Don’t make trouble.” Bai Chunian suddenly grabbed Rimbaud’s wrist, took the recording pen back and stuffed it in his pocket.
“I’ll go to the lab first, you wait for me here.” Bai Chunian got up and went out. Rimbaud didn’t follow, but leaned against the door and watched his back as he left.
Bai Chunian walked with his head down. He pressed the play button of the recorder, and put the small speaker against his ear to listen.
Then he replayed it again and again, as if he couldn’t hear enough of it, until the power of the recorder was too low and a bzzt noise began to sound.
“What are you looking at?”
Rimbaud was startled—Dr. Han had been standing beside him for an unknown amount of time.
“The one who saved him wasn’t me, I’m such a failure.” Rimbaud stared at the corner where Bai Chunian’s figure had disappeared and said expressionlessly, “He depends on people other than me.”
Han Xingqian saw his fishtail slowly turning red with irritability, and the tip of the tail flicked back and forth anxiously.
“He hasn’t returned to tip-top shape ever since he came back from the cultivation base in Red Fox City; he has a lot on his mind. He was originally afraid that the president would blame him for that incident. Right now, headquarters has been attacked and damaged for no reason. He may be fine on the surface, but he will doubt his own ability to work in his heart.” Han Xingqian said.
“Do you think you know him better than I do?”
“I wouldn’t say I do. Beside daily observation and psychological counseling, my associated ability, The Holy Beast Prowls, can read his mind.”
“I guess.”
“If you want to help him, get him to relax a little.”
“How?”
“Ermm…rub him.”
“How many times?”
“? I meant to caress him.”
“Oh.”
Around 10 minutes later, Bai Chunian came back from the lab with a test report. He went back to the office and sat down to read it carefully.
Rimbaud was curled up on the back of the sofa and gently caressed Bai Chunian’s head.
“Wife, wait a bit. Let me finish reading this.” Bai Chunian held on to Rimbaud’s hand, but Rimbaud’s other hand touched his chest, reaching down to rub his stomach.
Bai Chunian slowly pressed into the sofa cushion, being rubbed very comfortably. There was a small purring coming from his chest, and his tense back stretched.
Suddenly, Bai Chunian heard the sound of writing. He opened his eyes at once and saw Han Xingqian sitting in a chair not far away, pushing up his glasses and writing down in his notepad. “An effective way to soothe feline experimental subjects: Stroke their belly. Test Result: Effective.”
“Emotional factors have to be ruled out.” Dr. Han stood up and put on a pair of latex gloves. “Let me touch, too.”
“???” Bai Chunian’s gaze told him to stay an arm’s length away from him.
“Oh right, there’s a note hidden in the lining of the ampoule you gave me.” Dr. Han took out a zip-lock bag from his pocket, inside was a note with words written on it.
However, the writing was illegible.
“What’s written on it?”
“The scientific name of the main raw material of the NU nutrient agent. It seems that the Puppet Master and I have the same profession; he understands these things very well. Most of the raw materials here are contraband, some are hormones, and some need to be transported long distances from the place of origin. It isn’t easy to get them through customs, so an experienced transportation team is needed. It was previously the Red-Throated Bird, but after the Red-Throated Bird fell apart, the institute now employs the Greyhound Family.”
“Nutrient agent is a drug that promotes the development of the experimental subject’s combat ability. In fact, my research shows that an experimental subject can rely on eating human food or other organic and inorganic substances to support the growth of their body. Unless there is nothing to eat, the experimental subject themself doesn’t have the desire to devour humans or eat each other. If there isn’t a need for the experimental subject to be used as a weapon, injecting nutrient medicine is meaningless.”
“Is the Puppet Master inviting us to cooperate?” Bai Chunian crossed his leg and pondered. “There was such a disturbance in the downtown area, so there’s no way for us to cooperate.”
“I haven’t figured out the Puppet Master’s intention yet, but one thing I can be sure of is that they want experimental subjects. Even if they have to take the risk of breaking into IOA headquarters, they still want to capture them. So let’s help them out a bit.” Bai Chunian turned on the computer and wrote an email according to the lab report and the raw material list given by Dr. Han.
Yan Yi was sitting at his desk when he received a job application email from Bai Chunian.
“Hey, I just took a phone call, where did my big baby go again?” Lu Shangjin came back from the break room, sat on the sofa, and couldn’t find Lu Yan anywhere.
“Jin-ge, check this out for me.” Yan Yi raises his head.
“Hm?”
Yan Yi turned the screen over. “Have you seen these raw materials he listed?”
“No.” Lu Shangjin had excellent eyesight, even when sitting on the sofa he could clearly see the small characters on the screen in the distance.
“It’s not that complicated.” Lu Shangjin put his arm on the back of the leather sofa. “I have read their financial statements a long time ago. Because the stock price fell due to the damage to their reputation, the raw material transportation team was changed, and many investors have withdrawn their capital. The Research Institute has already reduced the production of experimental subjects, the delay in selling them at a lower price is nothing more than holding on to this bit of property rights—hoping to wait for the storm to calm down and make a comeback.”
“However, the difference between experimental subjects and commercial products is that the maintenance cost is extremely high. They need the nutrient agent that Xiao Bai said can maintain their lives. In addition, manpower, electricity, and equipment all need money. Once a certain amount of experimental subjects have accumulated, it will exponentially consume the funds of the Research Institute.”
“Now various national organizations are doubting the reliability of experimental subjects as well as the reputation of the Research Institute, so the number of experimental subjects purchased has been greatly reduced. The biggest source of funds for them must be the after-sales products related to the experimental subjects, which are all kinds of maintenance agents that are equally as expensive.”
“He listed five agents on the form: AC Accelerator, HD Horizontal Development agent, SH Shielding agent, IN Infection agent, and this NU Nutrition agent. I just took a look, the ingredients are very complicated and there are a lot of raw materials. I don’t understand medicine, but from the info, there is something called monocrylene, which is a common ingredient of these five agents.”
Yan Yi watched him with his chin resting on his hand and quietly listened.
Lu Shangjin took out his phone and told his assistant to contact a newly-cooperated medical device company using the name of a shell company.
Yan Yi raised a brow. “Aileen isn’t stupid.”
“Indeed. It’s not easy to develop a new organism like an experimental subject into an industrial chain.” Lu Shangjin briefly explained and then threw his phone on the sofa. “But if the 109 Research Institute was my industry, I won’t be defeated to such an extent, even if the opponent is you. You can’t be a businessman if you play badly with a good hand of cards.”
Bai Chunian playing the recorder again and again just to listen to Uncle Jin say the words “your son” makes me cry so hard. He’s so precious ಥ‿ಥ
Dr Han casually revealing he can READ minds!? He’s so OP!!!!
Thank You for the new chapter ♡(ŐωŐ人)
Thank you for the chapter!