LCFM Chapter 30

Zheng Yi froze where he stood, his lips moved slightly, his eyes full of shock.

Seeing his expression, Jiang Xinghuai laughed even more happily.

“Jiang Xinghuai.” Fu Yan shot him a warning look. “Later, you’ll do two math problems.”

Jiang Xinghuai: “………………”

“Sorry, Uncle Zheng.” Jiang Xinghuai pouted, then neatly apologized. “My name is Jiang Xinghuai, I’m Fu Yan’s good friend.”

“It’s fine.” Zheng Yi came back to his senses and smiled. “I’m Zheng Yi, also Fu Yan’s good friend. I’m younger than Fu Yan. You don’t have to call me uncle.”

“Okay, Uncle Zheng.” Jiang Xinghuai huffed, turned around, and walked off.

“Where are you going?” Fu Yan called after him.

“Peeing.” Jiang Xinghuai walked farther away without looking back.

“He’s the neighbor kid you mentioned on the phone?” Zheng Yi also watched Jiang Xinghuai’s retreating back. “Looks pretty young. Still in high school?”

“Just turned eighteen, senior year.” Fu Yan turned his head, noticing the row of soldiers lined up about a meter away surrounding them. Something was off. Zheng Yi leaving the shelter wasn’t safe, but it also shouldn’t require so many heavily armed soldiers following him out.

“What happened?” Fu Yan asked.

“…I’ve been put on the blacklist.” Zheng Yi took off his glasses, pressed the bridge of his nose, and said in a low voice, “Because of that research.”

“You shouldn’t have come out.” Fu Yan frowned, pulled open the car door. “Get in first.”

“It’s fine, I’m very safe now, don’t worry.” Zheng Yi smiled faintly as he said this. “I knew you would come find me. That’s just the kind of person you are, I knew it.”

“You knew my ass.” Jiang Xinghuai’s voice suddenly cut in.

Zheng Yi froze mid-movement as he was about to get in the car: “………………”

Fu Yan turned his head and saw Jiang Xinghuai and Lei Pengtao running over one after the other from the front.

“I knew it.” Lei Pengtao shoved the things in his arms into Jiang Xinghuai’s hands, smiled at Fu Yan, then turned and went back to the car behind them.

“Weren’t you going to the bathroom?” Fu Yan motioned Zheng Yi to get in the car first, then pulled Jiang Xinghuai over and wiped the sweat running down from the tip of his nose.

“Didn’t pee, couldn’t pee.” Jiang Xinghuai irritably shoved the food in his arms into Fu Yan’s hands. “Lei Pengtao dragged me, insisted he knew I was upset, and stuffed me with a bag of food. He’s got something wrong with him.”

“Get in the car first.” Fu Yan picked out a pack of beef jerky from the snacks in his arms and handed it to Jiang Xinghuai. “Want some water?”

“No.” Jiang Xinghuai climbed into the car. “I want Coke.”

“No Coke.” Fu Yan shut the door. “No drinking Coke in the morning.”

Zheng Yi, sitting to the side, watched the way the two interacted. His expression gradually grew complicated.

“Uncle Zheng, do you want some?” Jiang Xinghuai tore open the beef jerky packaging.

“No, thank you.” Zheng Yi smiled and declined.

“Drink this.” Fu Yan twisted open a juice bottle and handed it to him. “Go sit in the back.”

Holding the juice, Jiang Xinghuai obediently got up and moved to the back seat.

The beef jerky wasn’t eaten, just set aside, as he quietly watched the two people in front of him.

He knew there were more important things to talk about right now.

“Based on the content you sent me in that email, I roughly deduced a method and managed to create a simple virus-countering solution. But it can only temporarily halt the stiffening of the infected body.” Fu Yan opened his laptop and laid the data and images in front of Zheng Yi. “These are the results of the various tests I conducted on the infected before I came out.”

“Yes.” Zheng Yi nodded, lowering his head to carefully examine the information. “Your line of thought matches mine. For now, I can only stop the stiffening in infected people as well, and even then, the success rate is only 10%.”

“What?” Fu Yan frowned. “10%?”

“Yes, 10%. And even within that 10%, there’s a fifty-fifty chance that the infected whose stiffening is halted will suffer cerebral hemorrhage and die even faster.” Zheng Yi looked at Fu Yan. “That email I sent you—that’s everything I know.”

Fu Yan was stunned.

In the back seat, Jiang Xinghuai was also stunned. The juice bottle in his hand slipped and fell, and he didn’t even react.

He knew exactly what Zheng Yi’s words meant. In other words, Zheng Yi had no real solution for this virus either.

And the only known method of halting its progression carried a 50% fatality rate.

Would Teacher Geng already be in trouble now? They had been away for two days.

“We need to go ba—” Jiang Xinghuai shot to his feet, but with a loud thud, his head slammed hard into the roof of the car.

“Ah—” Jiang Xinghuai cried out, instantly bending over and clutching his head in pain.

“Hey!” Fu Yan was startled and hurriedly reached out to grab him.

“It’s fine, it’s fine.” Jiang Xinghuai waved his hand, his tone a little rushed. “Let’s go back, let’s go back, Fu Yan. I’m afraid Old Geng might be in trouble.”

“You should know that even if you go back now, it won’t change anything.” Zheng Yi spoke up.

Jiang Xinghuai fell silent.

Of course he knew. Going back wouldn’t make Old Geng any better, because he hadn’t found any solution.

“Is this someone you know?” Zheng Yi asked, looking at the pictures on the laptop.

“My teacher.” Jiang Xinghuai’s voice was very low.

“Since the outbreak of this virus until now, humanity has already lost nearly half its population. And yet, we still don’t know the cause of the virus’s sudden spread. Maybe it was an accident, maybe it was deliberate. I don’t know more than you do. I realized something was wrong, but it was too late. Even though I kept trying to learn more, to resolve more, to stop it—I failed.” Zheng Yi spoke slowly. “I ended up on the blacklist of that laboratory. I was expelled. By the time I managed to reach Fu Yan, everything was already too late. The virus had spread.”

“But we’ll find a way. As long as we work together.” Zheng Yi finally looked at Fu Yan as he said this.

Jiang Xinghuai nodded, then felt Fu Yan ruffle his hair again. He leaned back into the rear seat, lying down, draping his arm across his eyes to block the light.

In front, Fu Yan and Zheng Yi kept talking, their voices low.

Virus… self-awareness… molecular structure… intelligence… drugs… immune system collapse…

He understood the words, but once they were strung together in sentences, he couldn’t follow anymore.

His head felt like a boiling pot of red bean porridge, all muddled and messy.

As he drifted in thought, Jiang Xinghuai suddenly reached for the wound on his ankle. The cut had already scabbed over. He let out a breath of relief. He felt like—he probably wouldn’t turn into a monster.

But what about Old Geng? That fat guy with cholesterol through the roof was still lying in bed.

Jiang Xinghuai rubbed at the corner of his eye again, rolled over, and lay on his stomach, starting to seriously consider the possibility of tying Zheng Yi up and forcing him day after day until he made a vaccine.

Until noon came.

“Lunch.” Fu Yan called him.

“What’s there to eat?” Jiang Xinghuai sat up.

“Roasted potatoes,” Fu Yan said.

“Not eating.” Jiang Xinghuai flopped right back down.

“How about chicken drumsticks?” Zheng Yi’s voice sounded.

Jiang Xinghuai rolled over and sat up, looking at Zheng Yi.

“My assistant will bring my meal over.” Zheng Yi smiled. “There’ll be sweet and sour ribs, too. Do you like those?”

Zheng Yi had taken off his suit jacket by now, wearing just a white shirt. Smiling at him like that, Jiang Xinghuai still, for some reason, didn’t really like him.

Maybe it was the way Zheng Yi looked at him—that kind of hidden scrutiny beneath the gentleness. So he just nodded.

“Then I’ll give you my chicken drumstick later, too.” Zheng Yi reached a hand over to pull him up.

Jiang Xinghuai propped himself up on his own. Zheng Yi smiled faintly, withdrawing his hand. “You can have your friend bring your teacher over here. The conditions here are much better for dealing with the virus in his body.”

“Thank you, Uncle Zheng,” Jiang Xinghuai said.

Alright, no need to tie him up anymore.

He didn’t really like Zheng Yi. Dragging him back would just be an eyesore.

“Fu Yan will be staying here, too. He’s on the special rescue list,” Zheng Yi said.

“What’s a special rescue list?” Jiang Xinghuai asked.

“It means special talents, people who are useful to the country,” Zheng Yi explained simply.

“Oh.” Jiang Xinghuai looked at him. “So you both are.”

“Yes.” Zheng Yi nodded, then asked, “Do you have any other family? Once Fu Yan enters the base, he might not have as much time to look after you.”

“I don’t need anyone to look after me.” Jiang Xinghuai frowned. “I can take care of myself.”

“That’s very good.” Zheng Yi nodded.

“Do you want him to take care of you?” Jiang Xinghuai suddenly asked.

Zheng Yi froze, then smiled.

“He’s always taken care of me, since we were kids,” Zheng Yi replied.

“Oh.” Jiang Xinghuai nodded, then asked again, “Does he hold you when he sleeps?”

Zheng Yi fell silent.

“He holds me every single night.” Jiang Xinghuai jumped out of the car.

Outside, Fu Yan was squatting by the car, peeling the charred skin off a potato with a dark face. When he saw Jiang Xinghuai get out, he didn’t say anything.

Jiang Xinghuai squatted down beside him, took the potato from his hand, and took a bite.

Only then did Fu Yan look at him. “Didn’t you say you weren’t eating?”

Jiang Xinghuai bit into it again, black ash smearing the corner of his mouth. He grinned at Fu Yan.

“Don’t laugh like an idiot.” Fu Yan also smiled, rubbing his thumb across the corner of his mouth. “What were you talking about with Zheng Yi in the car?”

“He wants Teacher to come here,” Jiang Xinghuai said.

“We discussed it. Bringing Teacher Geng here is the best option,” Fu Yan replied.

“Mm.” Jiang Xinghuai nodded and said no more.

Zheng Yi’s assistant soon arrived, carrying a lunchbox with chicken drumsticks.

Zheng Yi handed his own insulated lunchbox to Jiang Xinghuai, saying he was still young and needed to eat more to grow.

Jiang Xinghuai handed it right back, telling him to watch his own nutrition and not get osteoporosis.

In the end, Jiang Xinghuai finished all the potatoes Fu Yan had roasted. He was so full he burped. Fu Yan rubbed his stomach for a long while.

By four in the afternoon, the 24-hour observation period had ended.

The iron gates opened, and everyone lined up to register. After stripping down completely for inspection, they were finally allowed into the newly built refuge base.

The base was large, its buildings all neat and square, standard military camp structures. Soldiers patrolled the grounds. On the parade field they passed, a squad of military dogs was in the middle of bite training.

Zheng Yi led them to a different building than the others. Inside, it was very quiet. Most of the people passing by were men and women in white lab coats.

“This is your room.” Zheng Yi pushed open the door, handed the key to Fu Yan, then looked past him at Jiang Xinghuai. “You—”

“We’ll share one room,” Fu Yan said. “I don’t feel at ease leaving him alone.”

“Alright.” Zheng Yi nodded, then smiled. “Get some rest. It’s too late today. Tomorrow, I’ll take you to the lab. Oh, and Liu Wen and Old Xue are here too. They’ll be very happy to see you.”

“They’re here too?” Fu Yan was surprised.

“The moment the military hospital received the first infected patient, they came and stuck with the main force,” Zheng Yi said with a smile. “They’re luckier than the two of us. I nearly starved to death at home.”

Hearing that, Fu Yan also laughed.

“Dinner’s at five. The cafeteria serves at a fixed time. My room’s just upstairs. Come find me anytime if something comes up.” Zheng Yi then looked at Jiang Xinghuai. “The military is already working on recovering signals across regions. I’ll put in an application to have your teacher brought here.”

“Thank you, Uncle Zheng,” Jiang Xinghuai said.

Zheng Yi cleared his throat. “Actually, I’m not the same age as Fu Yan. I’m a little younger than him. You don’t have to call me uncle.”

“Thank you, Auntie,” Jiang Xinghuai said smoothly.

“You’d better stick with uncle,” Zheng Yi said, turning to leave.

“Goodbye, Auntie,” Jiang Xinghuai said.

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