TSBSPAAM Chapter 40

Chapter 40: Gray-White Weather

 

The rain only lasted for one night. For the next half a month, the air became humid, and the days were constantly muggy and hot.

Shen Bumian would have an extra two hours of training every evening, and each time, Qin Luzhi would accompany him. On this day, they were walking along a tree-lined path in the school after their session.

The ginkgo trees on both sides of the path were tall, and large swathes of ginkgo leaves were beginning to turn yellow. Some leaves rustled as they fell.

Shen Bumian reached out and caught a leaf. He felt that the ginkgo leaves seemed to be withering and yellowing a bit earlier this year than in previous years.

Not far away, someone was talking. They weren’t deliberately lowering their voices, so Shen Bumian and the others could hear them clearly.

“Hey, have you heard? Someone has infiltrated the military academy, and they haven’t been caught yet.”

“What? Infiltrated? For real? Who was it?”

“I don’t know if it’s true, but I heard it’s someone from the Zerg. Someone accidentally overheard it during a school leadership meeting. They said Zerg energy fluctuations were detected. It’s been many days, and the school has been trying to catch them, but after that one detection, their trail went cold.”

“No way, that sounds a bit outrageous. Do they think the military academy is a joke?”

“I heard that the strange weather over the past half-month was caused by that Zerg. Haven’t you felt how strange it’s been?”

Hearing this, the person subconsciously recalled the muggy heat of the past few days. Although it was normal for the lingering heat of summer to persist into September in previous years, it had never been this oppressive.

For half a month, it had been neither rainy nor sunny, with occasional strong winds. In the early morning, you could see dark clouds in the sky, seemingly pressing down on the earth from the horizon.

The gray-white sky created an inexplicable sense of depression and had persisted for over a dozen days. Everyone was prepared for rain, but they hadn’t seen a single drop.

“I have felt it…”

…

As they spoke, the two of them walked further away. Shen Bumian was still thinking about their words and asked Qin Luzhi, who was beside him, “Is what they said true? Is the strange weather related to the Zerg?”

Qin Luzhi slowed down to match Shen Bumian’s pace. “Yes, Father mentioned a little about it to me. But the people at the military academy have the ability to protect themselves, so there’s no need for this to affect the curriculum. They’re searching for that person now.”

Those who could get into the First Military Academy had all been screened. They were more than capable of protecting themselves against a single Zerg. At the very least, they could escape, so there was no need to suspend classes and send everyone home over this incident.

However, Qin Luzhi was still a little worried about Shen Bumian. That was why for the past half-month, in addition to accompanying Shen Bumian for his extra training at night, he would also find him during the day when he didn’t have training.

Zhou Yizhou had even teased that the current Qin Luzhi was too clingy with Shen Bumian, but Shen Bumian was rather oblivious and only saw it as Qin Luzhi honoring his promise.

After washing up, as Shen Bumian lay in bed and closed his eyes to sleep, his mind was still on the conversation he had overheard on the way back to the dorm.

He didn’t sleep well that night. He had many dreams and woke up in a daze.

He vaguely remembered dreaming of Shen Ran. There also seemed to be a medical bay in the dream, and Shen Ran was sleeping inside it. And then? After that, Shen Bumian had no memory.

There were no classes this morning. When Shen Bumian woke up, it was already past nine o’clock. He rubbed his temples and got up to wash.

Zhou Yizhou had gone out with Chen Hebin again. He thought Chen Hebin had a pretty good chance, since Zhou Yizhou normally wouldn’t get up so early in these situations.

He replied to Zhou Yizhou, saying he was awake and was going to get something to eat now.

As he left, Shen Bumian subconsciously looked up at the sky. It was still overcast, the sky still gray-white.

Shen Bumian subtly scanned the woods. He kept feeling like someone had just been watching him.

After standing still for a few minutes, Shen Bumian headed towards the back street.

Just after twelve o’clock, Qin Luzhi had just finished his combat class. As expected, he was once again singled out by the instructor as a model student and praised, then pulled aside to help the instructor correct the other students’ movements.

After pointing out the last person’s mistakes, the class was finally dismissed for lunch. Qin Luzhi habitually took out his terminal to message Shen Bumian, asking if he wanted to eat together.

They had been eating together consistently recently, sometimes in the school cafeteria, and sometimes going out.

Shen Bumian loved to try new dishes he had never had before, and it was in those moments that Qin Luzhi was glad the First Military Academy was not a closed-off campus.

After a while, Shen Bumian still hadn’t replied, nor did he answer his communication call.

Qin Luzhi was already waiting in the cafeteria with He Jing and Mu Yi. Another ten minutes passed. Mu Yi and He Jing had already started eating, but Qin Luzhi just stared at his terminal, unmoving.

At this time of day, Shen Bumian should have replied to him by now.

He Jing looked up in confusion. “Boss? Why haven’t you gotten your food yet?”

Qin Luzhi shook his head and had already found Chen Hebin’s contact. Thinking that messaging would take too much time, Qin Luzhi directly made a holographic video call.

The video connected quickly. The other side appeared to be in a low-key restaurant; from the video, one could even see the bustling street through the window.

Qin Luzhi’s expression was not good, his brows furrowed. Chen Hebin saw the worry in his eyes and immediately asked, “What’s wrong, Boss?”

“Is Zhou Yizhou with you?”

Chen Hebin immediately called Zhou Yizhou over. Qin Luzhi didn’t beat around the bush. “I wanted to ask if Shen Bumian has contacted you. He isn’t replying to my messages.”

Zhou Yizhou looked up and met Qin Luzhi’s gaze, realizing something might have happened.

He quickly opened his terminal. The screen was still on the message where Shen Bumian said he was going out to eat. Zhou Yizhou immediately tried to make a call.

However, one second… two seconds… several minutes passed, and still, no one answered. This was a rare occurrence.

Zhou Yizhou looked back at Qin Luzhi on the other side of the hologram, his face also growing tense. “Mianmian… I can’t reach him.”

In that instant, all five of their hearts skipped a beat. Qin Luzhi said, “I’m going to find him,” and hung up the video.

Before the others could even react, Qin Luzhi had already run out of the cafeteria.

Ever since using his spiritual network to search last time, Qin Luzhi had gone back and specifically trained it. He had more or less mastered it by now.

Plus, with him helping Shen Bumian practice pheromone control, their pheromones had come into contact several times, so now he could establish a connection very easily.

Qin Luzhi found an open area, closed his eyes, and opened his spiritual network to begin his sweep.

Before the range had expanded very far, Qin Luzhi sensed Shen Bumian’s location.

Qin Luzhi opened his eyes and looked towards the woods near the omega dormitory. Shen Bumian was still at the school!

He sped up and ran in that direction. Before he even reached the entrance to the woods, Qin Luzhi felt the fluctuation of an ability.

He immediately approached to investigate. It was a spatial ability. He didn’t know what the situation was inside and didn’t dare to rashly destroy the space directly. Besides, he could feel Shen Bumian’s presence.

He tried reaching out his hand and saw a door suddenly appear before him.

It wasn’t an ordinary door; this one was more like a time-space tunnel, surrounded by a blue glow. Qin Luzhi didn’t hesitate and stepped forward.

Shen Bumian was in the middle of restraining a person, using his ability, Shackles, to bind them tightly. When he sensed someone had entered the ability space, he instantly became alert. But when he looked up, he saw Qin Luzhi’s dark and grim face.

“Why are you here?”

Qin Luzhi didn’t speak. He walked straight to Shen Bumian, his bone-chillingly cold gaze sweeping over the contorted person on the ground, before lowering his head to look at Shen Bumian.

The moment he entered, he had seen someone lunging at Shen Bumian with a knife. In that instant, it felt as if his heart had stopped.

Objectively, he knew Shen Bumian could dodge it, but subjectively, his heart had still leaped into his throat for a few seconds.

His dark pupils stared unblinkingly at Shen Bumian, who was still unaware of the situation, his eyes shining brightly.

“I caught him. It’s a student who was parasitized by the Zerg. He was the one causing the strange phenomena for the past half-month.”

Qin Luzhi still didn’t speak. Shen Bumian belatedly sensed that Qin Luzhi seemed to be angry. He could smell the scent of mint; it was a bit fierce.

He wanted to tell Qin Luzhi that his pheromones were leaking, but looking at his expression, he felt a little intimidated.

How strange, Shen Bumian thought. When have I ever been afraid of anyone?

Qin Luzhi was the first to back down. He had been slightly angry. Why would Shen Bumian come here all by himself in this situation without calling him? What if he had gotten hurt?

But looking at the omega’s expression, which was something akin to inviting praise, his anger instantly vanished. Feeling both exasperated and amused, he asked him, “Are you feeling unwell anywhere?”

Shen Bumian shook his head, then immediately nodded. This gave Qin Luzhi quite a scare. What did he mean by shaking his head one moment and nodding the next?

Shen Bumian spoke with a hint of grievance, “I’m hungry. I spent more than two hours dealing with him.”

After realizing he was being followed, Shen Bumian had decided to play along and walked into the small woods.

Sure enough, the next moment he felt the formation of an ability space. The consecutive dreams, on top of not eating that morning, had left him a bit muddled.

He had spent a long time searching for the ability user, and then it took another while to repeatedly override the opponent’s spatial ability, making frequent mistakes.

Thinking about it this way, Shen Bumian did feel wronged. Now, seeing Qin Luzhi’s still-cold face made him even angrier. “It’s all your fault for coming so late!”

Qin Luzhi was taken aback, almost unable to maintain his expression.

He couldn’t resist patting Shen Bumian’s hair and let out a soft chuckle, saying helplessly, “Yes, it’s my fault. I’ll take you to eat now.”

Only then did Shen Bumian feel a little better. He asked what to do with the person on the ground. Qin Luzhi didn’t even spare them a glance. “Someone will come to deal with it.”

With that, Shen Bumian was completely reassured. He was truly starving, and his lips were a little pale.

Qin Luzhi’s fingers touched something in his pocket. He hesitated for a moment before taking it out. It was a piece of chocolate.

He tore open the wrapper and handed it to Shen Bumian, letting him alleviate his hunger first. A flash of surprise crossed Shen Bumian’s eyes. “Why do you have chocolate with you?”

Qin Luzhi quickened his pace without answering Shen Bumian’s question and used his terminal to book a restaurant. Seeing that Qin Luzhi was unwilling to say, Shen Bumian quietly ate his food.

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