Chapter 33: Peach Blossom Calamity

Chapter 33: Peach Blossom Misfortune

"Right now?" Shen Ji asked Li Zhiyan.

At the same time, he was checking himself out in the mirror.

Last night, Shen Ji had passed out on the sofa without changing his clothes. When he woke up the next day, his hair was a bit of a mess. He still wasn’t wearing his glasses because several mushrooms were sprouting from his eyebrows, so he couldn’t wear his glasses in that spot.

Shen Ji tried to reason with them.

The hyphae whimpered in response: Logic isn’t edible—we don’t care about logic!

Shen Ji: …

"Where did you go last night?" the system suddenly said.

"Your hyphae opened an entrance. They followed it into another place. Worried they couldn’t get back, they clung to you as much as possible to sustain the connection, which is why these mushrooms remain so obvious."

‘Then what should I do now? I can’t go to work at the shelter like this, can I?’

"Try having them grow in less obvious places, like on your neck or on your stomach—anywhere that can be covered by fabric."

Shen Ji scoffed inwardly and continued arguing with the hyphae.

At that moment, Li Zhiyan also spoke.

"Not now—I’m not ready. Jiang Ying told me you can’t just confess like that, so it has to be this afternoon."

"I’ll come to the shelter to find you this afternoon."

Shen Ji responded, "Okay, no problem. Gotta go."

With a click, the call ended. Li Zhiyan stared puzzledly at the disconnected phone.

"He hung up so urgently?"

"He didn’t just say yes to get off the phone, did he?"

On the other end, Jiang Ying tried hard to keep a straight face but failed.

So she slouched over the table and sighed, "Agreeing to your confession just to hang up on you… No normal person would do that, right? It’s even worse than being penny wise and pound foolish."

Li Zhiyan retorted, "Sesame seeds are much more expensive per unit than watermelons. A pound of sesame is clearly worth more than a pound of watermelon."

Jiang Ying: …

Someone, please take this guy away! Their entire Special Operations Team would offer a generous reward!

"So, what’s the situation?"

Finally, they got down to business.

Last night, after confirming that those who successfully confessed might die, they arranged for a C-level dream-walking mutant to investigate first. That mutant, by chance, selected a victim and staked out overnight. The moment the victim fell asleep, he used his Talent to enter the dream.

"He said there’s a peach tree in the victim’s dream."

Li Zhiyan nodded, "And then?"

"The victim stood under the peach tree. Across from him was a figure without a face—unclear whether it was male or female—only that the victim and that thing were having a conversation. After the conversation ended, the victim hesitated before taking its hand. The next moment, the faceless person transformed."

"It pulled out an axe from behind it and swung it at the victim's neck. Our team member didn't even have time to react, and to avoid being detected, he didn’t intervene afterward."

Jiang Ying let out a breath. "After that, the strange thing dismembered the victim and hung the head separately on the peach tree."

As she spoke, Jiang Ying brought up a photo on her computer to show Li Zhiyan. It was the victim’s body—the expression was peaceful, as if in deep sleep, but the blood and severed limbs bore witness to the brutality of the crime.

"Our team member woke up from the dream feeling really sick. After confirming the victim’s body, he told me: the dismemberment marks were exactly the same as in the dream."

"Making it back alive is an achievement in itself," Li Zhiyan said, studying the photo. "Most nightmare contaminants detect mutants the moment they enter a dream. To leave the dream, you have to completely destroy the nightmare contaminant."

Jiang Ying nodded. "So I gave him time off and had him leave Q City to lay low elsewhere for a while."

"Good call."

Li Zhiyan fell into thought as he examined the body. After a few seconds, he asked, "Have there been any recent crimes of passion?"

"None," Jiang Ying shook her head. "After Q City was put under strict control, the guard corps conducted a city-wide sweep. They not only tallied the current population but also ran contamination checks on everyone. Any crime of passion would’ve been spotted immediately."

"What about missing persons cases?"

"There are plenty of those," Jiang Ying searched through the data. "The eastern district has the highest number of missing persons, especially after the Undertaker contamination incident. The Araki and black rat contamination events also left many missing."

"Look into the missing persons cases," Li Zhiyan instructed. "Focus on young people, under thirty, couples who vanished together, outside the key contamination zones."

Jiang Ying followed his instructions and searched, her eyes widening when she found a match.

"...I found something."

"A young couple went missing in the western district five days ago. Their neighborhood is very close to the peach tree! The man was 25, the woman 21. Neighbors reported hearing them argue and smash things. The cause might’ve been the man’s infidelity."

Li Zhiyan nodded. "Take a team and investigate their home."

"Understood!" Jiang Ying replied.

She closed her laptop, then asked, "Boss, how did you know what to look for?"

"Using peach blossoms to symbolize love is a young person’s game—older folks don’t do that anymore. Also, contaminants are territorial; they don’t cluster in the same spot. And finally, it’s called the Peach Blossom Calamity, so it’s probably trouble between lovers. If the dreamer of this nightmare contaminant really is them, one of them was likely dismembered a while back."

Jiang Ying nodded. "Hence the couple disappearing together."

"I never thought..." she murmured quietly, "we’d use murder investigation methods to track down a contamination source."

"Because contamination doesn’t follow logic," Li Zhiyan leaned an elbow on the table, resting his chin in his hand as he yawned. "After the apocalypse, all focus shifted to contaminants. The top priority is eliminating them quickly and identifying the contamination traits of contaminated patients. Everything else is secondary."

"That’s why possible clues like these get overlooked—a limitation of the times, I suppose?"

Jiang Ying sensed there was more to Li Zhiyan’s words.

"Do you think Doctor Shen isn’t limited by the times?"

"I don’t know," Li Zhiyan recalled Shen Ji’s demeanor.

"But he gives me that impression."

/

Shen Ji skipped work all morning and didn’t arrive at the containment center until afternoon.

The moment he stepped inside, Zhang Qingli stared at him in surprise, taking a few seconds to recover before speaking.

"What happened to your eyes?"

Shen Ji replied calmly, "I've been too tired these past few days and developed a stye. I applied some medicine."

He circled around Shen Ji, studying him intently for a full minute.

Shen Ji: ...

In the end, Shen Ji still couldn't persuade the hyphae to come down from the corner of his eyebrow. Under his threat, they whined and buried themselves under his eyes, but still refused to go back in, leaving behind tiny white specks that looked like faint speckles. With no other option, Shen Ji rummaged through his things and found an eyepatch to cover it up.

Wearing glasses in this situation would have looked even stranger, so Shen Ji went without them.

As a result, he drew stares from everyone who passed by.

People can't change their appearance, but they can adjust their vibe. Shen Ji wore black-framed glasses for precisely this reason—his looks were ruggedly handsome, and he relied on external accessories to soften his look and appear more approachable.

Now, with the glasses off and an eyepatch on, his intense coolness and handsomeness made him seem like a completely different person. No matter how neatly he dressed or how properly he buttoned his clothes, it couldn't hide the chillingly cool presence he exuded.

Cool and handsome—so much so that people couldn't look away once they caught a glimpse.

"Maybe you should take the rest of the afternoon off," Zhang Qingli said. "Looking like this, you're highly likely to have patients crushing on you and asking you out."

"According to previous reports, quite a few have dreamed about you at night."

Shen Ji: ...

Just then, Dr. Wang Anle, holding patient files, and Qi Yuanhai, who was stuck at the Q City shelter and unable to leave, came walking by.

Spotting Shen Ji, Wang Anle spoke up, "Hey, Xiao Ji? Why weren't you here this morning?"

Shen Ji turned to look at him, and upon seeing Shen Ji's getup, Wang Anle jerked back slightly in surprise.

Is... is this the latest trend among young people??

"Had a stye, went to have it treated," Shen Ji said, instinctively reaching to adjust his glasses, only to realize he wasn't wearing any today.

"Oh, oh," Wang Anle nodded. "Then it's right to take time off and get it checked. By the way, seems like someone's looking for you outside. Want to go see?"

Shen Ji was puzzled. "Who's looking for me?"

"Did you forget? You promised Li Zhiyan you'd accept his confession."

Shen Ji fell silent again.

He had completely forgotten about that.

The little mushrooms refused to retract, and he had been busy arguing with them—if he went out like this and were discovered with mushrooms growing on him, it would be disastrous. In the back and forth, he had completely forgotten about it.

When did Li Zhiyan say he was coming again?

This afternoon?

"If you want my opinion, I suggest you just blow him off."

'Don’t you think if I don’t go out, he’ll just come in looking for me?'

"Then let’s go all the way and get rid of the body!"

'...'

Shen Ji thanked Wang Anle, handed over his patients to Zhang Qingli, then turned and left the shelter to look for someone.

Qi Yuanhai witnessed everything. He remembered that the person waiting outside when he arrived was Li Zhiyan. He had initially assumed Li Zhiyan was there to supervise the body handlers, but Li Zhiyan said he had come to meet someone.

Could it be him?

"Who was that just now?" Qi Yuanhai asked Wang Anle. "So young—some kind of medical prodigy?"

"Xiao Ji is a healthcare worker in Zone I, a mutant, not a doctor," Wang Anle replied with a smile. "But he's a good kid, very capable, so everyone likes him a lot."

Qi Yuanhai nodded thoughtfully.

Perhaps he could have a friendly discussion with this person about pollution disease research.

Even if he couldn't recruit him, building a good relationship would still be valuable.

Qi Yuanhai silently memorized the name.

Xiao Ji—probably surnamed Ji. He would quietly check the staff list of the Q City branch in the afternoon.

Meanwhile, Shen Ji left the shelter and arrived at the square in front of the building. Sure enough, Li Zhiyan was standing there.

"Mr. Li, you're here quite early."

"Not really," Li Zhiyan replied. "To ensure I can enter the dream tonight, we must complete this process today."

"However—"

Li Zhiyan looked him up and down, taking in his new appearance. "Was Mr. Shen so distressed by my confession that he cried so much his eyes got sore?"

"...No need to be quite that self-aware."

"Then it's not my fault after all," Li Zhiyan said, a hint of amusement in his eyes. "That's good."

Shen Ji sighed. "So, you just confess to me, and then I say yes, right?"

"For now, that's the idea. But since it's unclear what counts as success, I might try confessing a few times."

Li Zhiyan added, "This is my first time confessing to someone."

Even as he spoke, Li Zhiyan’s gaze never left Shen Ji’s face.

Shen Ji without glasses.

Without his glasses, Shen Ji’s dark pupils clearly reflected Li Zhiyan’s own figure. Shen Ji also had the habit of staring intently during conversations, making it feel as though he was imprinting the other person entirely into his sight, as if his full attention was focused solely on him.

Li Zhiyan’s hand in his pocket unconsciously clenched, making a small, instinctive gesture.

"I understand," Shen Ji said, his tone as serious as ever, carrying a hint of regret—as if once he agreed, there would be no turning back.

"I'll give you a proper acceptance too."

What were the confession lines Jiang Ying had prepared in advance?

Li Zhiyan had to look away and begin recalling.

After finishing his recollection, he spoke again.

"I really like you." Unlike his usual manner of speaking, these words came out hesitantly, genuinely conveying the nervousness of someone making a confession.

"Will you be with me? I promise to treat you well, never betray you, and we will be happy together."

But that's so cheesy.

As a journalist, Shen Ji could come up with countless elegant, poetic and romantic ways to confess—whether artistic or realistic—but this was the first time he had heard such an unvarnished, tacky confession.

However, a good journalist wouldn't raise objections at a time like this.

Shen Ji gazed into Li Zhiyan's eyes, then dutifully lowered his head as if slightly shy.

He faintly curved the corners of his lips into a smile as light as a breeze, gone in a second, like a pure young man experiencing love for the first time.

"I accept," Shen Ji said. "I like you very much too."

...Who the hell can put up with this?

"Ugh, I can't look anymore."

The system shut off its vision. "Call me when you guys are finished."

Li Zhiyan took a sharp breath, and a few seconds later, he repeated what he had just said.

So Shen Ji repeated his acceptance as well.

Li Zhiyan was lost in thought.

"What about the smile?" Li Zhiyan said discontentedly. "You have to smile at me, just like the first time."

Shen Ji: ...

Once was enough to test his acting talent; who the hell would want to smile at you again!

Finally done humoring Li Zhiyan, Shen Ji returned to the shelter, mentally and physically exhausted, ready to start his afternoon work.

Zhang Qingli was helping him record patient data and moved aside to make space for him when he arrived.

"Shen Ji," Zhang Qingli asked, "I heard from others that Li Zhiyan confessed to you. Did you accept?"

"Word spreads that fast?" Shen Ji said regretfully. "I thought our shelter was a proper research facility. See, a piece of gossip spreads throughout the entire shelter in less than an hour. Such an environment easily breeds rumors, and one misstep could lead to a lifetime of regret."

"Besides, I was just cooperating with Mr. Li's work, helping him break through this contamination incident."

"Everyone should focus on personal conduct."

Zhang Qingli nodded, then asked again, "So did you accept?"

"Yeah, I did."

"So the two of you still aren't close?"

"No, not close."

Zhang Qingli turned back to sorting the medications to be distributed that afternoon. "Alright, if you say you're not close, then you're not close."

Even if they weren't close, they could exchange personal numbers; even if they weren't close, Li Zhiyan came to Shen Ji to learn how to take photos; even if they weren't close, they had dreams about each other, and Li Zhiyan even confessed to Shen Ji to deal with the pollutant.

Hmm, Schrödinger's "not close."

'My reputation is ruined,' Shen Ji cried to the system. 'I knew getting involved with the protagonist would lead to no good.'

"So I’ve been saying we should have bailed on him from the start instead of agreeing."

'But that doesn’t fit my persona.'

Shen Ji was unusually insistent. 'Do you remember my persona? I’m an upright, selfless person, who would do anything to save everyone, with excellent character who doesn’t care about himself. How could such a good person refuse Li Zhiyan’s proposed solution just to avoid getting involved with him?'

'That’s the only way to resolve the contamination.'

"True. Refusing would have broken your persona and made people suspicious, so we made the right choice by agreeing!"

'I’ll go pour boiling water on the flowers tonight,' Shen Ji said expressionlessly, uttering terrifying words.

'Then I’ll demand of Li Zhiyan why the flowers he sent died in just a few days—and ask if he looks down on me.'

"..."

The system felt Shen Ji didn’t need any comfort at all.

/

After work in the evening, Shen Ji returned to his dorm. The moment he closed the door, he ripped off the eyepatch and let out a heavy sigh.

Humans are creatures who see with two eyes. After getting used to seeing with both eyes, forcibly covering one eye feels very unfamiliar and can even cause spatial disorientation.

Shen Ji nearly tripped twice today while going down steps.

He walked into the bathroom, sighed at the patches under his eyes, and said, "Why are they still there? Will I have to wear an eyepatch tomorrow too?"

"Maybe you should ask."

"Ask what?"

"Ask your hyphae why they insist on staying in that other space, even defying your orders to remain."

Shen Ji placed his hand over the hyphae under his eye, his pupils gradually turning pale.

The system had a point.

Them chasing nightmares into dreams wasn't unusual—after all, the hyphae had a gluttonous nature. It wasn’t as if he didn’t know they sneaked into the shelter at night to snack while he slept. Since Shen Ji’s instincts restrained them from significantly affecting the patients, he turned a blind eye.

But this was the first time they had so blatantly ignored his orders and refused to return.

In their communication, the hyphae, with their limited consciousness, beat around the bush. Despite not even being as smart as a child, they had learned to deceive him.

"Tell me the truth," Shen Ji said sternly, pretending to be angry.

The hyphae fell for it and finally whimpered out the truth.

Soon, Shen Ji understood why they were so determined to stay holed up in there.

On the other side of the dream was a familiar, spicy, appetizing contamination, but it was buried too deep to dig out. So they split into two teams: one worked hard to dig it out, while the other stalled their master to keep him from finding out.

"...They’ve even learned the art of misdirection for the sake of eating?"

"This isn’t something to be proud of," Shen Ji scolded the hyphae. "You should have told me earlier."

"That so-called 'spicy' contamination they mentioned is the Contaminated Seed of the S-class Pollutant Gardener!"

"Holy shit! That's right!"

"So that peach tree is the Gardener’s seed?!"

"According to the original work, the Gardener often plants seeds in humans to cultivate new exotic plants. Before the seeds sprout, they might maintain a low pollution level like Chu Ye, or the pollution might go entirely undetected until it erupts completely and the new exotic plant matures."

Shen Ji lowered his hand, turning to look out the window. His pale eyes held a sharp intensity that, combined with his appearance, made him look somewhat fierce.

"Its other seed has grown."

Upon realizing this, Shen Ji felt a surge of anger. He wanted to vent his fury, preferably by digging out the Gardener's seed and smashing it right in its face.

After mentally playing out this scenario, Shen Ji caught himself.

No, no. He was an elegant, calm journalist. He couldn’t do anything that might tarnish his image—he had to keep his on-camera persona polished and flawless.

Goddammit, tomorrow he’d tear up the Gardener’s plantings and plow them into farmland!

"Pollutants all have territorial awareness."

The system whispered quietly.

"What?"

"I said, pollutants all have territorial awareness."

"Pollutant Filth is a very special kind of pollutant—he’s also domineering. In his rules, 'wherever I step becomes my territory.' The territory he claims especially doesn’t allow any high-level pollutants to invade. Low-level pollutants are practically like air, easily wiped out without a second thought, so they don’t matter."

"When the Gardener’s seed encroached on your territory, you felt provoked."

"You got angry because of it, and your hyphae also tried to expel and devour it."

Shen Ji walked from the bathroom back to his bedroom, sat on the bed, picked up his phone, and scrolled through his contacts until he found the Gardener’s number.

He dialed the number.

The phone emitted a dial tone, and after a few seconds, a prompt sounded.

"Sorry, the number you have dialed is not in service. Please try again later."

Shen Ji: …

Just as Shen Ji was fuming, the hyphae coiled around his knuckles as if to ingratiate him. When Shen Ji raised his hand, they led him in a certain direction.

The moment Shen Ji felt a sense of weightlessness, he abruptly stabilized himself and found himself back in that strange place. The enormous peach tree before him was still in full bloom, its pink blossoms delicate and tender. Petals danced in the wind.

He had been dragged into this nightmare by the hyphae again.

Shen Ji skirted around the massive peach tree and walked toward the withered little peach tree he had seen earlier. Indeed, he saw a different scene.

A line of people stood before the small peach tree, their eyes closed and heads bowed. Their faces were indistinct, but they were persistently lined up in a row.

At the front of the line stood a faceless shadow.

In one hand, it clutched a peach blossom branch; in the other, it held an axe.