Chapter 90

Chapter 90

"The door is closing, hurry up!"

The people in the water, disregarding Feng Chen's psychic attack and the zombies' bites, frantically swam towards the shore.

Chu Shi's face twitched, his eyes bloodshot, as he blasted the zombies with psychic power and swam quickly towards the concrete edge.

Feng Chen concentrated his psychic power into several sharp beams, stabbing them towards Chu Shi.

The psychic power pierced through the air, making several muffled sounds before penetrating Chu Shi's back.

Chushi's body stiffened, and several streams of blood gushed from his back, attracting more zombies that furiously lunged at them.

His subordinates were dragged into the water, letting out desperate screams that were quickly silenced. Despite Feng Chen's psychic attacks, Chushi, bloodied, reached for the concrete edge but was pushed back by Black Lion's paw.

Binunu stood on the extending partition door, frantically scratching at the people in the water.

As the partition door was about to close completely, Binunu quickly reached down and grabbed, deeply embedding its claws into a zombie's eye sockets and extracting the eyeballs just as the door shut.

With a clang, the partition door closed completely, instantly silencing the chaos and screams. Inside the tower, there was peace.

Panting, Yan Bubu climbed to his feet and ran to Feng Chen, calling out, "Brother!"

Feng Chen caught him, holding him in his embrace.

"Are you okay?" Feng Chen asked.

Clinging tightly to Feng Chen's neck, Yan Bubu replied, "I'm okay, just... just really scared."

Feng Chen cradled his head, their foreheads touching, with water dripping down their faces.

"No one will chase us anymore, don't be afraid," Feng Chen said with a hoarse, reassuring laugh.

"I'm not afraid anymore, not afraid."

Black Lion turned to see Binunu, still seemingly angry, wrinkling its nose, baring its teeth, and staring at the partition door's seam, holding two dark eyeballs in its hand.

Black Lion: ...

Carrying Yan Bubu, Feng Chen climbed upstairs. Both were soaked and couldn't leave the tower like this, or they would freeze instantly. He found a vent on the 22nd floor blowing warm air and stripped off their wet clothes to hang and dry over the vent.

Having encountered a bear and then this ordeal, Yan Bubu was genuinely frightened. He didn't feel it at first, but now with Feng Chen beside him, he began to feel afraid and wronged. As Feng Chen sat beside him, Yan Bubu threw himself into his arms, crying intermittently.

"I was so scared, Brother, hold me tighter... still not tight enough... sob sob... I was really brave today, wasn't I... sob sob..."

With one arm around Yan Bubu and the other ruffling his wet hair to help it dry faster, Feng Chen spoke comforting words.

"See? You're fine. Stop crying now, don't wipe your snot on me, I don't even have a tissue... No more crying, okay? Besides, you were so amazing and brave today."

"Yeah, I was super amazing... sob sob..."

Feng Chen, recalling earlier events, asked, "How did you manage that?"

"What do you mean?"

"When you ran to smash the steel claw, how did you avoid the zombies' attacks?" Feng Chen thought back to the scene and felt Yan Bubu seemed to anticipate every move, perfectly evading every attack as if he knew beforehand, which seemed incredible.

Wiping his eyes, Yan Bubu replied, "It was my magic power. When the bear was chasing me, I kept dodging, and my magic showed up. It played 'TV' in my head, teaching me how to dodge it."

Feng Chen immediately sat up anxiously, "The bear chased you?"

He had assumed Yan Bubu hadn't directly encountered the bear, thinking Binunu had killed it right away.

Yan Bubu nodded, "Yes." Wiping his tears, he raised his hands beside his head, imitating a bear's pounce, "Roar... like this, very fierce." Then he stood up and dodged left and right, "Look, I did it like this."

"How did you manage to dodge?" Feng Chen asked.

"I told you, my magic power. It showed 'TV' in my brain, teaching me how to dodge."

Feng Chen asked with confusion, "Showed TV? How?"

Yan Bubu began to describe vividly.

"Wait," Feng Chen interrupted, "You said there were many small TVs, each with a version of you. What were those yous doing?"

"They were all dodging. Some got bitten and the TV turned off, others who didn't get bitten kept dodging."

"Were there many TVs?"

Yan Bubu nodded, "Lots and lots—" He stretched his arms wide, reaching behind him, "I had to choose from those TVs, picking one where I could dodge, and do the same as the me inside."

"You had to choose yourself?"

"Yes, I had to pick from those TVs." Yan Bubu extended his hands, rapidly flicking through the air in front of him, "See? See? I had to choose quickly like this."

Wearing only his small shorts, Yan Bubu shivered, his whole body and hair quivering as he performed the motion.

"No, it's much faster than that, countless times faster," Yan Bubu said while flicking through the air, "I go through them segment by segment to find the best one and then follow its actions."

……

Feng Chen patiently inquired, and Yan Bubu racked his brain to answer, until Feng Chen finally understood the situation.

The television Yan Bubu referred to seemed to be a conscious image manifested in his psychic realm. When faced with danger, his psychic powers could analyze and predict in an incredibly short time, providing him with various methods to handle the imminent threat.

It wasn't foresight, but his psychic powers performing extensive calculations and analyses, preemptively predicting each possibility and its subsequent developments.

This was a highly complex process.

Each possibility could lead to countless others, yet Yan Bubu was able to swiftly select the most appropriate and suitable one.

Feng Chen thought this must be an ability of a guide.

His knowledge about guides was limited, unsure if others could do the same. Still, Yan Bubu's abilities greatly amazed him and left him deeply impressed.

As Yan Bubu was demonstrating how he chose those images, Feng Chen interrupted his motion of swiping through the air, saying, "Come here."

Yan Bubu, panting, walked over and stood in front of him, with sweat beads on his nose.

Feng Chen looked at him with a complex expression and suddenly asked, "What's 46 minus 37?"

"Ah!" Caught off guard, Yan Bubu was momentarily speechless, staring at him wide-eyed.

Feng Chen suddenly laughed, shaking his head and saying, "That's good, that's good."

He had just been injured by the psychic force of the foundation stone and coughed twice when he laughed.

Yan Bubu immediately asked anxiously, "Are you sick? You're coughing."

"No sickness, just a sudden itch in my throat."

"Let me check your throat, see if there's a bug," Yan Bubu said, reaching to pry open Feng Chen's mouth.

Feng Chen slapped his hand away, saying, "Don't touch me, you're all dirty right now."

After sitting for a while longer and drying their clothes and hair, they tidied up and prepared to leave.

"Binunu, let's go, time to head back," Feng Chen called out, leaning over the railing towards the base of the tower.

Binunu had stayed on the twentieth floor, idly tossing zombie corpses down, creating loud thuds.

Hearing Feng Chen's call, it lazily glanced upward, showing no intention to leave, yet not opposing either.

"Binunu, come on," Yan Bubu also shouted.

The two mounted the black lion and exited the tower through a window. Yan Bubu watched the windows above intently, relieved when he saw Binunu following them out.

The black lion galloped towards the mine where they first encountered the foundation stone, with Binunu trailing behind, keeping a distance but not falling too far behind.

Yan Bubu occasionally looked up, peering over Feng Chen's shoulder at Binunu. Seeing the little bouncing ball in the snowstorm, he nestled back into Feng Chen's embrace, reassured.

"I think my Binunu is really good."

Feng Chen shouted back, "What did you say?"

"I said I think my Binunu is really good!" Yan Bubu replied loudly.

"Say it again, louder, I can't hear you."

This time, Yan Bubu shouted at the top of his lungs, "I think my Binunu is really good!"

His voice carried away by the wind, trailing behind them.

Binunu, who had been maintaining a distance, suddenly sped up, closing some of the gap between them.

Arriving at the mine, Yan Bubu eagerly jumped down and began searching the snowy ground.

The snow had smoothed over footprints and traces, but they weren't buried deep. Feng Chen and the black lion joined the search, quickly uncovering the password box, glass beads, straw-woven grasshoppers, and the painting from beneath the snow.

Everything was intact except for the painting, which was torn in half and soaked by the snow, freezing into two blocks of ice. Feng Chen put the ice blocks into Yan Bubu's cloth bag, saying, "We can dry and stick them back together when we get back."

Yan Bubu, however, was counting the grasshoppers: "One, two, three, four, five… Why is there one missing? There's still one grasshopper missing."

Seeing it was getting late and the sky darkening, Feng Chen, concerned about the dropping temperature, said, "We might not find that one, let's head back."

"We can find it, we must find it," Yan Bubu insisted, kneeling in the snow, digging through it with his thickly gloved hands. "There were six in total, we found five, we must find the last one."

"But it's getting dark, and the temperature will drop, let's leave that one for now, cough cough cough…"

Yan Bubu stopped digging at the first cough, looking at Feng Chen. Seeing him continue to cough, he quickly got up and went over to pat his back.

After Feng Chen finished coughing, he said in a hoarse voice to Yan Bubu, "It's okay, might have caught a bit of cold."

Yan Bubu brushed the ice off Feng Chen's eyebrows and lashes, saying, "Let's go, brother, we should head back."

Feng Chen glanced at his cloth bag, "You haven't found your sixth grasshopper."

"Let's not look for it," Yan Bubu quickly shook his head, hugging Feng Chen's arm to help him up, "We should go back, it's getting dark, and the temperature will drop."

Feng Chen asked, "Are you sure we're not looking for it?"

"No more searching," Yan Bubu declared firmly. "We're heading back now. I'll come back to search tomorrow."

Feng Chen knew those grasshoppers were important to him, but with nightfall and plummeting temperatures, staying was too dangerous. He summoned the black lion, still digging in the snow, and, carrying Yan Bubu, they mounted its back.

"Binunu, time to go."

Binunu was sprawled on the snow, gazing at the sky. Hearing the call, it just rolled its eyes toward them, remaining motionless.

The black lion approached, opened its mouth to pick Binunu up, but then thought better of it. Instead, it scooped up a pawful of snow and began to rub Binunu's body.

Binunu reflexively tried to dodge, but the black lion pinned it down and swiftly scrubbed it with snow.

Focusing especially on its two paws.

Annoyed and angry, Binunu sprang up, biting at the black lion's face.

The black lion slightly recoiled its head, allowing Binunu to latch onto its mane, dangling at the side of its head.

"Grrr... Grrr..." Binunu emitted a fierce growl from its throat, clinging tightly to the black lion's mane.

The black lion, however, remained calm, letting Binunu hang from its mane as it ran towards home.

Back at the research institute, both were frozen, their faces pale and lips blue, limbs stiff. Yan Bubu was shivering, his teeth chattering.

Feng Chen stripped off their snow-laden coats, ran a hot bath, and together they lay in it.

The hot water soothingly warmed every inch of their skin. Feng Chen sighed contentedly, relaxing and closing his eyes. Then, he felt Yan Bubu's psychic power enter his mind, starting to organize his psychic realm.

Yan Bubu had occasionally organized Feng Chen's psychic realm during their battle with the foundation stone, so there wasn't much to organize. But Yan Bubu loved the feeling of roaming freely and peacefully in Feng Chen's psychic realm, so he stayed inside, not wanting to leave.

Feng Chen, playful, tickled Yan Bubu with his psychic energy, then playfully darted away. Their psychic energies danced like joyful little fish in the boundless psychic realm.

"Haha, hahaha…" Feng Chen heard Yan Bubu giggling in the bathtub, eyes still closed, a smile curving on his lips.

After thoroughly warming themselves in the bath, they stepped out and donned clean, warm clothes.

Feng Chen felt refreshed, the discomfort from the psychic force of the foundation stone gone. But Yan Bubu, remembering his cough, insisted on finding medicine. Feng Chen relented and swallowed a Vitamin C tablet under Yan Bubu's watchful eye.

"You should take two when you're sick," Yan Bubu worried.

Feng Chen replied, "I'm not coughing anymore, one is enough."

"Alright, just one then."

Feng Chen advised, "Different illnesses require different medications. You can't just take anything; it might worsen the condition."

"I see, I'll remember that."

After taking the medicine, Feng Chen fetched Yan Bubu's cloth bag and retrieved the torn painting.

The ice on the paper had melted, dampening the sheets. He found a glass pane and laid the paper flat on it.

Yan Bubu, looking at the halved painting, asked, "Will this fix it?"

"Yes, it'll be fine once it dries," Feng Chen placed the glass in an empty room and shut the door. "I'll glue it tomorrow, and it will be a complete painting again."

Remembering the brown bear's corpse downstairs, Feng Chen called the black lion to help dispose of it.

"You stay here, don't follow," he said, donning a thick down jacket. "I have to open and close windows, it's too cold."

"Hmm, okay," Yan Bubu obediently agreed.

Feng Chen directed the black lion to drag the brown bear outside the building, skinning it whole and dividing the meat into large chunks.

With the freezer already full of fish, the bear meat was buried in the deep snow beside the building. This prevented spoilage and kept the scent from spreading. When they wanted to eat it, they could simply dig out a piece. The bear skin could be processed into a warm fur coat, even warmer than a down jacket.

After Feng Chen and the black lion left, Yan Bubu stood still, idly kicking the carpet and occasionally glancing at the window, moving towards it without making a sound.

Binunu was sitting on the windowsill, its dark eyes fixed on something outside, inscrutable.

"Wow, it's so beautiful outside," Yan Bubu reached the window and blurted out casually, then turned to stare at Binunu.

Observing Binunu's large head and the three leaves on top, he suddenly said, "You're different from what I imagined, but still very good-looking."

Ignored by Binunu, Yan Bubu tried to make conversation: "Your hands are so small."

Binunu kept staring outside, as if not hearing him. Yan Bubu carefully reached for its slender arm, wanting to hold hands.

"Growl..." Binunu turned its head and bared its teeth.

Yan Bubu shivered inwardly but didn't let go, still holding its small paw and calmly looking outside.

Binunu huffed and turned its head away, but didn't pull its paw back.

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Author's Note:

The story of their childhood is almost at an end. I'll wrap it up tomorrow, and they'll be grown up the day after. This story isn't as long as you might think; the childhood and adulthood parts are each half of the total, around 800,000 words. As I mentioned in my previous synopsis, the first quarter is from the attacker's perspective, but as some readers have noticed, it has been dual perspectives for quite some time. This story shouldn't be categorized as dominant-submissive; I've thought about changing the perspective to neutral, but couldn't during the ranking period, and forgot when it was unranked. I'll find an opportunity to change it.