Chapter 124

Chapter 124

The next day, Jie Linyuan woke from a hangover to find himself sprawled across the RV's large bed, his body aching as if it had been run over by royalty. He frowned, noticing he was naked under a soft blanket, with only his right hand outside — playing a game.

The moment he moved his head, Wu Yin forcefully twisted it back towards the screen, muttering softly, "Don't move, I'm about to break the record."

Jie Linyuan immediately pressed down on the thumb intentionally, making Wu Yin's character lose control and plunge into a trap, losing the last life and successfully achieving Game Over.

Wu Yin: "..."

The poor half-mechanical body instantly became a battlefield for the two souls, resulting in a fight between the left and right hand, with Jie Linyuan eventually begging for mercy before Wu Yin would relent.

Jie Linyuan dressed in fresh clothes, had a hearty meal, packed a backpack with items from the RV, and then strolled towards the zoo with a contented expression.

Despite the sharp drop in temperature in late autumn, his physical condition kept him warm, even with minimal clothing. Wu Yin, comfortably nestled against him, resembled a black cat snuggled in a cozy nest, tucking in his limbs, his eyes slightly squinting, and his glossy, long tail swaying back and forth, teasing the red-eyed white mice lurking in the corners.

Jie Linyuan struck up a conversation, "Going back?"

"Let's go back," Wu Yin yawned, "Honestly, Jie Linyuan, if this were a novel or drama with twists and turns, Gui You would have told us half the story and stopped at a crucial moment. By the time we get back now, we'd find him gone, missing, kidnapped, or even directly murdered."

"..." Jie Linyuan helplessly played with a leaf he'd picked, rubbing it between his fingers, "Can you not curse us like that? And I've told you to stop reading those bizarre romance novels."

"I haven't been watching those anymore." Wu Yin said earnestly, "I've been into crime thrillers lately."

"You're not allowed to watch those either."

“……”

The incident with the mutant creatures had the area around the zoo on edge, significantly reducing the number of forces collecting entrance fees. Jie Linyuan entered the zoo smoothly and even saw the familiar vendor who used to sell mutant pothos for 100 park coins with a lion's mouth.

The pots were still there, but the pothos was gone.

Wu Yin guessed the mutant pothos was now lazily soaking up the sun and drinking water in the backyard of the mansion.

For some reason, Wu Yin's previous offhand comment about dramatic developments had Jie Linyuan concerned, and he found himself hastening his pace. Upon returning to the mansion, Jia Chen and Geng Wu were, as usual, not home, and the grey-blue had completely fallen, indulging in threesomes with Grapes and Grapes' husband, leaving the hall eerily quiet.

Rushing to the second floor and pushing open Wu Yin's room door, Jie Linyuan looked around to find it empty, with no signs of anyone having slept in the bed, and even His Highness was missing.

"...Was our place really robbed?" Jie Linyuan pressed his hand against his chest, where Wu Yin resided.

The next second, Wu Yin took over the body, quickly heading to the backyard and soon finding the mutant pothos relaxing by the pond, looking for all the world like it was lounging on a beach chair with sunglasses on.

Wu Yin pulled it up from the soil a bit and asked, "Where did they go? A person and a dog."

Jie Linyuan heard the pothos spout a bunch of meaningless gibberish, seemingly annoyed at being disturbed.

Wu Yin quietly let it vent its spleen, then said, "Take me to them."

The mutant pothos, still huffy, pulled its roots from the soil, hopped onto Jie Linyuan's shoulder, and then pointed in a direction with its leaves.

"Don't let me find out he's gone into hiding," Jie Linyuan's eyes darkened, his expression serious.

A minute later, they found Gui You walking the dog less than fifty meters from the mansion, earnestly instructing His Highness to hurry up and relieve itself. Both the border collie and golden retriever expressed their disdain for such public defecation, resulting in a noisy dispute between the man and two dogs.

Wu Yin, Jie Linyuan: "..."

Upon seeing Jie Linyuan, His Highness rushed over as if he had seen a savior, his tail wagging like a propeller.

"You're back?" Guiyou followed, "What about Wuyin?"

"That's me," Wuyin said, "Come, let's go back and continue our conversation from yesterday."

"You've parasitized him?" Guiyou circled Wuyin, making a serious assessment, "Hmm... his physical condition is actually quite good. Why don't you just stay parasitized and not return him?"

Wuyin glanced at him: "He can hear you, and he can still punch you."

Saying so, the left mechanical arm lifted itself, as if genuinely considering giving Guiyou a hefty smack.

Guiyou: "..."

Guiyou awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck, "Is your ability symbiosis?... No, that's not right. Didn't you mention in your communications with Gengwu that you were a parasite?"

"Jie Linyuan's body is special; I can't parasitize him, only coexist like Gengwu."

"How is that possible?" Guiyou wondered, "If you can't parasitize, the [core] would be expelled from the body. How can it be both parasitism and symbiosis?"

Wuyin quietly watched him, hoping he would come up with an answer. Unfortunately, Guiyou was baffled, and even after furrowing his brows into a tangled mess, he couldn't figure it out.

Everyone decided to temporarily set aside this question and returned to the room to continue the unfinished conversation from yesterday.

"Hmm... as I was saying yesterday, my mother bribed a boatman transporting goods to smuggle me back to the mainland. She told me then that among the core six members of the parasitism experiment group, the original founder of the project, the biggest financier, a man codenamed Yier, was secretly conducting another experiment called 'nucleus snatching'. This seemed to be an accidental discovery in the parasitism experiments, but with promising progress, far surpassing the parasitism experiment. It matured before the sixty Jiazi batches, in essence, 'nucleus snatching' meant he could parasitize someone else's [core] with his consciousness. The main project was to study how to parasitize humans, and his side project was to study how to parasitize [cores]."

"So, Yier's ultimate goal diverged from my mother's. My mother hoped that I could produce a [core] inside me through the parasitism experiments, whereas Yier only needed to parasitize the [core] inside someone else after generating a suitable [core] in them. Thus, after the perfect experimental subject number thirty, Guisi, developed a [core], he planned not to continue the research, for he only wanted to snatch Guisi's [core], become Guisi, and then parasitize you, Wuyin."

Guiyou looked at Jie Linyuan, "Yier is a man with severe burns all over his body, apparently from an accident in his thirties. I've seen him a few times, and honestly, the impression is profound... Severe burns can lead to various complications, impaired limb movement, digestive system dysfunction, respiratory system dysfunction, frequent infections and inflammation, hence he didn't want to wait, to conduct further research based on Guisi as a starting point. But his actions would inevitably be opposed by the other five members, so..."

"He decided to kill all those who knew."