Chapter 31: Peach Blossom Calamity

Chapter 31: Peach Blossom Disaster

A heavy rain swept through Q City.

Yes, that's right—it was man-made rain again.

Torrential rain could severely impact plants during their pollination period, washing pollen directly from the air to the ground. After careful consideration, the Pollution Prevention Center once again gave the order: "Make it rain in Q City!"

Li Zhiyan, wearing a raincoat, looked up at the pouring rain, unable to hide the disdain in his eyes.

Jiang Ying rushed over through the rain, holding a laptop in her arms.

"Captain!" Jiang Ying said, "Waiting long? Let's hurry inside."

"You didn't wear a raincoat?" Li Zhiyan looked at her. "Your clothes are soaked. Aren't you cold?"

"It's fine. Mutants are tough. This bit of rain won’t make me sick." Jiang Ying opened her laptop. "Let’s go in quickly."

Li Zhiyan sighed. He took off the raincoat that he’d been glued to, then removed his guard team uniform jacket and draped it over Jiang Ying’s shoulders. Finally, he put the raincoat back on, seeming satisfied.

"Let's go."

Jiang Ying was taken aback for a moment. She glanced at the jacket on her shoulders, then at the person striding ahead confidently in his raincoat, and a faint smile touched her eyes.

If Li Zhiyan weren’t such a good person, who would ever work for such an oddball?

This was the guard dormitory compound. Everyone who joined the guard team was provided housing, but during emergencies, they had to temporarily stay in dormitories. The person who had died was discovered by his roommate in one of these dorms.

As soon as he stepped into the dormitory, Li Zhiyan caught an overpowering smell of blood.

The bedding was soaked through with blood, and the corpse was a mess. The deceased appeared to have died from excessive blood loss after having his limbs brutally hacked off. A severed arm lay on the floor, stiff and ghostly white.

"Five such cases have been discovered today. We’re still getting reports from residential areas, so there might be more," Jiang Ying said as she photographed the body for documentation. "There's no evidence of a struggle on the body, which is strange. How could someone not struggle while being torn apart alive?"

Li Zhiyan looked toward the adjacent bed. "Did the roommate notice anything?"

"Not a sound. He said he’s a light sleeper and wakes at the slightest noise, but he slept very soundly tonight. He only noticed something was wrong when he woke up to use the bathroom and smelled blood."

A bizarrely sprouting peach tree, no detectable pollution, yet a horrific death.

Li Zhiyan thought for a moment. "Aside from asking someone out during the day, was there anything else different about him compared to others?"

"Something different?"

Jiang Ying pondered, then pulled up the file. After reviewing it, she gasped in surprise.

"Does it count if his confession was successful?"

"His confession was successful?"

"Yes. It’s rare for someone to succeed in their confession after being affected." Jiang Ying pulled up the files of all confirmed victims, then widened her eyes slightly in shock.

"All the deceased had successful confessions."

Li Zhiyan nodded. "So now we have a specific pattern of contamination. Track down everyone who got a 'yes' and protect them."

"Understood."

Jiang Ying immediately passed down the order.

The area of influence of the peach tree is simply too vast; the Pollution Prevention Center cannot monitor the entire region simultaneously. Therefore, various security teams are assigned to different zones, while also documenting affected individuals in each area. All it takes is an order from Jiang Ying, and the units will mobilize immediately.

Li Zhiyan crouched down, touched the victim's blood, and soon the blood transformed into blue particles of light. These particles circled the corpse twice before vanishing.

This indicated that the victim's blood contained trace contamination, but it was too minimal to trace back to its source.

"Captain, we have a new lead," Jiang Ying said, poking her head in while wearing a wireless earpiece. "Many people reported having strange dreams last night."

Li Zhiyan turned to her. "What kind of dreams?"

"They said there was a peach tree in their dreams, and beneath it stood someone—someone they knew—waving at them from under the tree. About 80% of our security team had similar dreams."

Jiang Ying rubbed her temples. "I didn’t have the dream because I didn't sleep last night."

"Captain, did you have it?"

Li Zhiyan nodded. "Yes, and I remember it clearly."

The person lying under the peach tree, reaching out to him, clothes disheveled, a glimpse of pale skin... Yu Wenyan... He wondered if that person looked the same without glasses as in the dream.

"So, everyone within the area of influence who slept had this dream, including high-level mutated individuals," Jiang Ying noted, recording the clue.

Though the meaning of the dream remains unclear, we must remain vigilant.

Several people died inexplicably on the first day. If we don’t find more clues soon, even more might die tonight.

The Peach Blossom Calamity was never this ominous.

As she wrote, Jiang Ying glanced up at Li Zhiyan, who stood by the window watching the rain outside. His raincoat was still damp, making him look as if he were about to leap from the building.

"Boss," Jiang Ying asked, "who did you dream about?"

Li Zhiyan turned and looked at her. "Who do you think I dreamed about?"

"Definitely not anyone from our team," Jiang Ying mused. "A butterfly? The plants you grow? Or perhaps that Doctor Shen?"

The moment she mentioned Doctor Shen, she noticed his brief hesitation.

Alright, it’s definitely Doctor Shen.

Though she had never met this Doctor Shen, Jiang Ying was already impressed. How long had it been since they met, and yet he had already figured out their terrifying Captain Li? Li Zhiyan’s eccentric nature was truly unparalleled; anyone interacting with him would inevitably go mad.

Anyone who could get along normally with Li Zhiyan must be supernatural!

"Actually, it doesn’t matter who I dreamed about," Li Zhiyan said. "But he’s different."

Jiang Ying: ...

That statement was so contradictory it was meaningless.

"How is he different?"

"He’s good-looking," Li Zhiyan said with unusual seriousness. "So good-looking that I even wondered if he might be a Pollutant."

"I think dreaming about him is completely normal. Anyone who’s seen him would dream about him at night."

Jiang Ying: ...

She should’ve kept her mouth shut.

/

Shen Ji got up and went to the shelter. As soon as he entered, he saw a group of people discussing something, with Zhang Qingli among them.

As he approached, he overheard them talking about "dreams."

"Xiao Ji, you're here for work. Pretty early today," an older doctor greeted Shen Ji when he noticed him.

Shen Ji nodded. "I went to bed early last night."

"Did you dream last night?" the doctor asked curiously. "Who did you dream about?"

"Dream…" Shen Ji remained calm. He didn’t answer, but his expression carried a hint of embarrassment.

Although Shen Ji had no idea what dream they were referring to, judging by how many people were discussing it together, it must have been some strange dream that most people present had experienced.

'What dream?' Shen Ji asked the System. 'All-Powerful System, do you know?'

"I—I don’t know. Wait a moment, buy some time, I’ll go check the surveillance footage!"

"Don’t be embarrassed to talk about it. Everyone’s dreams were strange. We were just discussing it earlier," the doctor said, thinking Shen Ji was just shy, and even tried to comfort him. "The security team called earlier and said dreaming is a normal occurrence. Most people in the affected area had dreams."

"Really? But I still feel…" Shen Ji glanced at Zhang Qingli, his eyes looking for help.

A person who was usually calm and never got rattled was now so flustered by a dream that he couldn’t bring himself to speak and even turned to others for help.

This contrast made him seem even more pitiful.

Zhang Qingli finally spoke up, "Alright, if Shen Ji doesn’t want to talk about it, just leave it be. Stop prying into other people’s privacy."

"You’re just playing poor Zhang into sticking his neck out for you."

'How is it a trick? I really am pitiful. I have no idea what dreams they had, and they’re still pushing me to talk,' Shen Ji retorted righteously. 'Time for some guilt-tripping!'

"…"

"Anyway, I just checked the surveillance footage and found their earlier conversation."

"Last night, almost everyone in the shelter had a strange dream. In the dream, there was a huge peach tree in full bloom, and beneath the tree stood someone familiar to them, waving at them. Although the person under the tree varied from dreamer to dreamer, the fact that everyone had the same dream at the same time is already pretty weird."

"Ah, and it’s not just the shelter—people outside had this dream too, and there are a ton of people."

Shen Ji asked curiously, 'How do you know?'

"I’m a System. The security team’s defense mechanisms are like paper to me. Let me see… Hmm… Several people who got together yesterday died, but there’s no trace of contamination. No clues can be found. The peach tree is a normal peach tree, but it can’t be removed…"

Listening to the System, Shen Ji muttered, "It really is a Peach Blossom Calamity."

Zhang Qingli overheard him. "You dreamed about the person from your Peach Blossom Calamity?"

Shen Ji: …

What good was having these ears of his?

"I dreamed about someone I can’t discuss," Shen Ji sighed. "Actually, the reason I woke up early today was because of this dream. It was so emotionally messy that it startled me awake."

"Zhang Qingli has been tricked by you so many times and still hasn’t grown suspicious. He’s truly a bodhisattva."

Shen Ji ignored the System’s sarcastic remark. "Who did you dream about?"

"I…" Zhang Qingli’s face went pale. After a few seconds, he finally spoke. "It was the Director."

Shen Ji: "..."

He began to picture a scene: under a peach tree, Director Wen, with his eyes narrowed into slits, waving at him.

So creepy.

Reading the emotion in Shen Ji's eyes, Zhang Qingli covered his face. "So I woke up in a panic right then. After that, I was too scared to fall back asleep. I really can’t imagine Director Wen waving at me under a peach tree—it’s just too bizarre, like a total nightmare."

Shen Ji gave his back a sympathetic pat. "It’s alright, it was just a dream. Things in dreams aren’t real."

"So who did you dream about?"

"Ah, I..." Shen Ji hesitated again and again, but in the end, he decided to make up someone.

It had to be someone familiar, but not too familiar—preferably someone whose past he knew well, so he could back it up later.

"Li Zhiyan."

"Wait, who?!"

'I mean, obviously? Li Zhiyan is the protagonist of this novel. If there’s anyone I know best, it’s obviously the protagonist. It’s not like I know Director Wen better than Li Zhiyan, right?'

"I... guess that makes sense?" the system hesitated.

Zhang Qingli nodded. "Now I get it."

Shen Ji looked at him, puzzled. "Understand what?"

"Your standard for 'familiar' is different from normal people’s, just like how your definition of a joke is different from everyone else’s." Zhang Qingli said, like he'd just figured something out. "Even though you’re not close with Li Zhiyan, you can still dream about him at night. Even though the jokes you tell are terrible, you confidently believe everyone will like them."

"I completely understand now."

Shen Ji: "..."

That was pretty harsh.

They each went to pick up the meds to be distributed that day and brought it to Ward Ⅰ. Since he hadn’t slept well the night before, Zhang Qingli was yawning the whole way.

"How's that patient doing?" Shen Ji asked, referring to the one who had escaped last night to confess to Zhang Qingli.

Zhang Qingli rubbed his eyes. "We adjusted the dosage and ratio. Since it seems this patient was affected by the peach tree, she’s being medicated separately for now."

"Speaking of which, I’m actually here to drop off her medication. Come with me—I’m afraid she might escape again."

Shen Ji calculated his workload for later and, making sure it wouldn't make him late getting off, nodded. "Of course, no problem."

"We’re colleagues. That's what colleagues do."

"I knew you’d agree." Zhang Qingli sighed. "But don’t go overboard with helping—don’t wear yourself out."

"...Even though he should be thanking us, I have to admire your ability to say exactly what people want to hear."

'This is called communication skills. You’re an AI—you wouldn’t understand.'

"True, most people can't actually do that."

The two arrived at the isolation room from the day before. The patient didn’t look like she was awake yet; she had buried herself under the blankets, and at first glance, couldn't see her at all.

Zhang Qingli first pressed the medication delivery alert bell, but there was no movement from inside. He let out a quiet hiss and switched on the pollution detector.

The pollution level on the pollution detector was normal, showing no change from yesterday, so he continued checking the other values. Finally, he hesitated for a few seconds while looking at the life detection reading next to it.

Shen Ji, standing beside him, also saw the value: the life detection reading was 0.

This reading was actually quite common for contaminated patients, as pollution could cause various mutations, and the old detection mechanisms couldn’t accurately determine a patient’s vital signs. As a contaminated patient affected by wood contamination, her own vital signs were already minimal due to wood transformation.

"Should we go in and check?" Shen Ji asked.

Unless under special circumstances, medical staff rarely opened the doors of isolation rooms—this was to protect the patients and ensure others wouldn’t be exposed to secondary contamination.

Zhang Qingli was silent for a few seconds. "I’ll go in and check. You keep watch at the door for me."

After saying this, he entered the password and identity verification, opening the isolation room door.

After donning full protective gear, Zhang Qingli stepped inside.

The patient who had confessed to him last night lay quietly in bed. Zhang Qingli reached out to wake her, but as soon as he touched the corner of her blanket, a section of her arm fell off.

Lignified contaminated patients didn’t even bleed; there was no scent of blood in the air, only a faint woody smell. The wood hitting the floor didn’t make much sound either.

Zhang Qingli’s hand froze. It took him several seconds before he pulled aside the blanket.

Underneath were scattered pieces of wood, shaped like human limbs. The patient’s eyes were closed, as if she were peacefully asleep.

…She had died, right here in the sanctuary's isolation room.

Shen Ji went in to pull him out and called Director Wen, who took it very seriously and said he would come over immediately.

Eventually, the two waited temporarily in the waiting area for the team to arrive.

Zhang Qingli sat on a chair, head bowed. After a while, he spoke.

"I should have paid more attention to her," Zhang Qingli said. "I knew she was affected. If I had spent more time observing her then…"

"You couldn’t have known this would happen. We have so many patients to care for; where would we find the extra time to give special attention?" Shen Ji handed him an opened bottle of mineral water. "Drink some water to collect yourself."

Zhang Qingli took the water from Shen Ji. "Thank you."

'But, Zhang Qingli didn’t accept her confession, right? Why did she die?'

"I checked the surveillance footage. One good thing about the containment facility is that the isolation rooms are fully monitored, every detail captured clearly."

"Before attacking Zhang Qingli yesterday, she had already confessed to a patient in the neighboring isolation room—a middle-aged man who couldn’t find a wife. He accepted her confession and even planned to marry her after recovery."

Shen Ji fell silent for three seconds, frowning as he struggled to process this.

What a senseless way to die.

Soon, Wen Jingyu arrived with his team. He instructed them to collect the body and temporarily place it in the special processing area, to be sent to the Pollution Prevention Center after the peach blossom situation was resolved. Wen Jingyu also comforted Zhang Qingli, informing him that there had been cases of sudden deaths occurring outside during the night.

The security team was still investigating, so he shouldn’t carry any psychological burden.

Finally, Director Wen sent a notification to all staff about the incident, instructing all medical personnel to check whether any patients under their care had died under mysterious circumstances from sudden incidents.

Shen Ji checked each of his patients one by one—no issues whatsoever.

"It wouldn’t dare. Even if there are no signs of pollution now, these mysterious incidents are undoubtedly linked to contamination. Since it’s pollution, they wouldn’t dare make a move under your fungal network's surveillance."

"Your patients will be fine."

Shen Ji stood with his hands in the pockets of his white coat, looking out from the entrance of the containment facility.

There had been heavy rain early this morning, pouring down and making the weather even colder. Reportedly, the Pollution Prevention Center had initiated another artificial rainfall to curb pollen spread.

But artificial rainfall had its limits—there were only so many rain clouds. The air was damp, the ground muddy, yet the distant peach trees continued to bloom quietly.

Standing at the entrance, he could still catch the faint, sweet scent of peach blossoms in the air.

Artificial rain could only provide temporary control.

'Is Li Zhiyan braving the rain to go to work again?' Shen Ji mused. 'Does the Pollution Prevention Center have it out for him? Every time there’s a pollution incident, they do artificial rainfall.'

"Given Li Zhiyan’s style, it’s highly likely intentional. The Pollution Prevention Center is completely under Li Zhiyan's thumb—they’re dissatisfied but don’t dare speak up, only expressing their discontent in these subtle ways."

In the original work, as a mutant with the Talent "Mimic Butterfly," Li Zhiyan intensely disliked rain. This was one of the rare plot points in the original that revealed his eccentric personality.

Every time it rained, he would stand at the doorway in his raincoat, gazing at the sky and saying, "The rain will wet my wings."

Even though he had no wings at all.

Just as he said this, a light drizzle began to fall from the sky again. Shen Ji thought it was quite fitting.

He prepared to leave but, upon turning around, spotted a familiar figure.

Li Zhiyan, as always, wore his transparent raincoat with the hood up, standing in the light rain and watching him. There was no telling how long he'd been standing there; his raincoat was covered in droplets, yet he hadn’t made a single sound.

'…When did he appear there?'

"...No idea."

"Mr. Li, here to supervise again?" Shen Ji finally chose to speak first.

"No, here to see you." Li Zhiyan walked over in his raincoat. Even though the raincoat covered him down to his feet, he had still gotten somewhat wet, his white long hair wet and clumped together.

He didn’t seem to mind, simply tossing his hood back.

"Here for your flowers?"

"Something like that." Li Zhiyan was unusually brief this time.

Li Zhiyan wasn’t a silent person; in the original work, he seemed relatively reliable, but in reality, he was bizarre to an extreme degree and quite talkative.

This was the first time he had been so concise with Shen Ji, saying only two sentences.

But in truth, Li Zhiyan simply couldn’t muster the energy to speak. Rainy days were awful, putting him in a poor mood. Yet, upon seeing Shen Ji, he couldn’t help but recall that dream. He had even unconsciously watched Shen Ji in the rain for a while, gradually blending the two people together in his thoughts.

So, as he watched, he was wrestling with himself.

No, that was a dream. The real Shen Ji would never reach out to him—he’d be too repelled by him.

But he looked really good so put-together.

So Shen Ji was a straight-laced person who would never let his clothes get so disheveled, at least on the surface.

But he also looked really good when messy…

Having lived so many years, Li Zhiyan was discovering for the first time that he might actually be superficial.

Or perhaps it was just that Shen Ji’s personality matched his ideal so perfectly, with his looks being a major bonus point.

"The flowers are in my dorm, come with me to get them." Shen Ji didn't pay attention to his inexplicable silence.

Entering and exiting the shelter's dorm requires swiping a card, but there are no restrictions on bringing people back. After swiping his card, Shen Ji brought Li Zhiyan in, with Li Zhiyan obediently following behind him. Of course, his trademark looks still made many people in the dorm recognize him.

All the way to Shen Ji's dorm, he opened the door with a fingerprint lock and pointed to the sofa.

"Sit wherever."

Before Li Zhiyan even entered, the hyphae scurried away. They still remembered to avoid this person, though they didn’t understand why their master was bringing an enemy into their territory...

'Is it to lure the enemy in and finish them off?!'

Sensing the hyphae’s excited agitation, Shen Ji sighed helplessly and told them to hide quickly and not let Li Zhiyan notice.

So the hyphae sulked and hid in the cracks.

He still had to be hospitable, so Shen Ji rummaged through the cabinets and found a can of old tea leaves, left behind by a previous roommate who moved out.

Anyway, Li Zhiyan doesn't die even after eating poisonous mushrooms, so a little expired tea was nothing.

While Shen Ji was brewing the tea, Li Zhiyan looked around Shen Ji’s temporary residence.

The room was clean and tidy, with no mess. Only a few open books lay on the coffee table. Though it was a temporary place, it was clear Shen Ji often tidied up. On the windowsill sat two potted plants—the partially bloomed flower had now fully opened, glowing with a gleaming blue light, while the other smaller bud had also lifted its head.

Shen Ji was taking good care of them.

"What’s the situation with that sudden pollution incident?" Shen Ji placed the teacup in front of Li Zhiyan. "Our shelter had a patient die after confessing."

"Jiang Ying is investigating the details, but that’s also why I came to find you."

Li Zhiyan didn’t drink the tea. He just looked at Shen Ji. "I might confess my feelings to you."

Shen Ji: ……？？？

“……Huh?”

"What?" Shen Ji almost leaped back three meters. "No, no, no, there’s no possibility between us!"

Li Zhiyan: ……

He felt a little hurt but still explained seriously, "That’s not what I meant. I’m referring to the act of 'confessing.'"

"If we can’t identify the source of the pollution, high-level mutants will try to determine it through this action. We’ll confess and get the person we confess to to agree to fulfill the condition."

"Oh, I see." Shen Ji breathed a sigh of relief. "Then why me?"

Li Zhiyan stared at Shen Ji, and after a few seconds, he spoke solemnly.

"Jiang Ying’s analysis told me: those affected by the pollen all had a dream where someone familiar appeared. It’s a kind of delusion. If they show signs of mental pollution, they’ll likely confess to the person they dreamed about. So it’s safer to approach the person they dreamed of."

Shen Ji: ……

"Does he mean… he had a dream last night, and he dreamed of you?"

'Don’t ask about something so obvious!'

"No, why would he dream of you?!"

The system emitted a sharp screech, "Shen Ji, whatever you do, don’t agree to him! Hurry up and reject him outright!"