Chapter 90: [Source of Pollution]

Chapter 90 "The Source of the Contamination"

The blue flames raged on for a long time, until the sky began to lighten and the sun rose from the east.

"The flames have been extinguished!"

Li Qing'an and Zhou Ye confirmed this fact through their binoculars.

After the visible blue flames disappeared, the Academy of Sciences' life detection instrument finally registered signals. Several life signs appeared on the device, and according to the data, half of the people who had gone missing in the shelter had survived.

Li Qing'an sighed in relief. "I knew they'd be fine."

Zhou Ye pointed at the figure ahead. "Boss!"

Li Zhiyan indeed stood out—that mop of long white hair alone was enough to grab everyone's attention. Li Qing'an told her team members to rescue the survivors, while Zhou Ye ran toward Li Zhiyan.

Just as he was about to come within three meters of Li Zhiyan, Li Zhiyan made a "shh" gesture at him.

That's when Zhou Ye noticed Li Zhiyan was sitting on the ground, holding another person in his arms.

The person looked like he was out cold, leaning against Li Zhiyan's chest—or maybe Li Zhiyan was just holding him there.

Li Zhiyan had taken off his Guard Team uniform jacket and draped it over the person, so only a hand and the lower half of their body were visible. He could just make out a few strands of black hair hidden beneath the jacket.

Zhou Ye was a little confused. Did Doctor Shen have hair that long?

Li Zhiyan pulled the jacket up a little further before speaking. "Dealing with the [Diary] drained too much of Shen Ji's energy. Using too much of his Talent makes him pass out."

"Just like how using too much Talent turns you into an idiot, Boss?"

Li Zhiyan: ...

Realizing his mistake, Zhou Ye silently covered his mouth.

Li Qing'an came over after she was done giving orders. "The [Diary] is gone?"

"For now, yes," Li Zhiyan replied.

She looked around. "But where are the survivors?"

The thing was, she hadn't been able to find any survivors.

Even though the life detector could pick up signs of life, she and her team couldn't see a single person. She'd started to wonder if the life detector was malfunctioning, until the Academy of Sciences people chewed her out, insisting their gear was working perfectly and that the problem lay with the people.

Li Zhiyan was the only one who knew what was up, which was why she had come to ask him.

Li Zhiyan finally processed the question. "...Ah, I forgot."

"Forgot?"

"Yeah, Wu Chi hid all the survivors on site so I could use my Talent without restraint."

Zhou Ye: ...

Memory deterioration—wasn't that still turning into an idiot?

Li Qing'an knew about Wu Chi. She had joined the Pollution Prevention Center earlier than Li Zhiyan, back when Wu Chi was still active on the front lines. She had heard about Wu Chi's mental breakdown, and everyone said it was such a shame.

She never expected Wu Chi to eventually return to work and protect so many survivors.

"Where exactly are they?"

Li Zhiyan thought for a moment, then stated matter-of-factly, "Forgot."

Li Qing'an: ...

No choice, then. She could only have the Guard Team members search every inch of the place, determined to find Wu Chi and the survivors.

Just then, Shen Ji, still asleep, heard a voice.

"Stop sleeping."

The system called to him. "Handle the cleanup first. Wu Chi saw you in your current state, which blows our cover."

"After devouring the Diary, you gained some of its Talents. Use one to erase this part of Wu Chi's memory."

Shen Ji stirred unhappily in Li Zhiyan's arms.

No. Too tired. Don't wanna work. Don't wanna eat.

He was so, so sleepy.

"If you don't handle this now, it'll be a pain later."

Shen Ji opened his eyes. The next moment, black fungal threads emerged from the ground. Li Qing'an instantly bristled, leaping into the air and on high alert, scanning the area. Li Zhiyan also looked down into his arms.

Then, in a hidden corner, Wu Chi softly collapsed. As he slumped to the ground, his Talent faded, and the survivors he had been shielding behind him finally appeared before everyone.

Li Qing'an was stunned for a moment.

She landed on the ground, and it took her a few seconds to react before hurriedly calling her team to rescue these people.

Li Zhiyan watched the scene, making sure no one noticed anything unusual before carefully lifting the jacket.

Underneath, Shen Ji looked unchanged, the jacket draped over his head like a black cat trapped by clothing.

His long black hair and pale eyes met Li Zhiyan's gaze, those eyes filled only with indifference and the irritation of interrupted sleep. Li Zhiyan reached out to smooth his messy hair, and Shen Ji yawned again, snuggling back into Li Zhiyan's arms and closing his eyes.

He fell asleep again quickly.

Li Zhiyan held him close, preparing to lift him up. It was only then that he noticed Zhou Ye watching him from not far away, looking confused.

Zhou Ye's Talent gave him strong intuition, referred to by the team as 'beast instinct.' He often was the first to sense when something was off, as if the danger in the air became tangible to him.

In that moment just now, Zhou Ye sensed the danger came from Li Zhiyan's direction.

But it wasn't from Li Zhiyan.

That left only the person with Li Zhiyan.

...Doctor Shen?

Li Zhiyan raised his hand, gently put a finger to his lips again, then picked up Shen Ji and boarded the rescue truck that was there for the survivors.

Zhou Ye blinked, and after a moment, he spoke.

"There are tooth marks."

"Tooth marks on the Captain's wrist?!"

Who bit him? There's no need to even think about it—would Li Zhiyan just let any random stranger bite him?!

What huge mistake did the boss make to infuriate the usually steady, proper, and kind Doctor Shen so much that he actually bit him?!

Is this going to lead to a chase-wife-crematorium scenario later?

Zhou Ye quickly shared his discovery with the team. Although there was no photo as proof—who would dare take a picture of Li Zhiyan at a time like this?—he could guarantee that he really saw the bite mark on Li Zhiyan's wrist.

As for the threat he sensed from Shen Ji...

The world of S-Class Mutants was beyond their understanding. Just like how Li Zhiyan would turn into an idiot if he overused his Talent, even a Mutant like Gao Yuan lost the ability to act independently after losing control.

He had no idea what difficulties Li Zhiyan and Shen Ji had encountered here, only that the "diary" had disappeared.

In such a situation, of course, they chose to trust.

"Falling Petals: ...A bite mark? Did they skip dating and go straight to preparing for marriage?"

"My Fate Is Mine to Control: Sister Jiang, isn't that a bit too imaginative? No matter what, they wouldn't do it in a contaminated zone—with pollutants and survivors around, that's just too shameless."

Zhou Ye looked at the topic in confusion.

"I Am Not a Cat: What does fortune-telling mean? Do? Do what?"

"Falling Petals: Little cat, go play. You don't need to understand."

Zhou Ye: ...?

Is there something he isn't allowed to know?!

/

Even though the diary had disappeared, the area around the Silent Frost Domain was still covered in ice and snow. They could only drive the vehicle slowly, bringing the survivors back to X City Shelter.

The Shelter Director had been busy all day, sorting the recovered survivors into isolation rooms one by one.

Wu Chi woke up shortly after entering the isolation room.

Surprisingly, his memory of the entire Puppet City was very blurry. He couldn't remember what exactly happened, only that someone had told him to protect the people behind him.

The Director judged that this was likely the diary's influence. After all, the diary dug up the deepest memories in people's minds and could even alter memory nodes. Perhaps not just Wu Chi, but all these survivors' memories might have been affected.

Sure enough, as he predicted, the survivors who woke up after Wu Chi all had issues with their memories.

Most of them had forgotten everything about Puppet City, retaining only the emotions from repeatedly facing traumatic memories. Some even developed PTSD but had no idea how they got it.

Treating these contaminated patients was also proving very difficult. But with Shen Ji in poor condition and sleeping soundly, they couldn't bring themselves to disturb him.

They could only wait until Shen Ji woke up.

In the X City Shelter dormitory, Shen Ji was sleeping soundly on the bed.

It was already quite late. Sunlight streamed into the room through the window, and batches of small mushrooms were squatting on the roof—black, white, and blue ones. The small mushrooms were peeking through and staring down at Shen Ji below, chattering and discussing.

The big butterfly! It's too close!

Expel the big butterfly!

But the master likes the big butterfly, eep!

Can't expel the big butterfly, the master likes it.

But it's too close!

The small mushrooms chattered again, unable to reach a decision.

At this moment, Li Zhiyan and Shen Ji were lying on the same bed. Not only was Shen Ji affected by the diary, but Li Zhiyan was also exhausted from overusing his Talent. After carrying Shen Ji back to the dorm, he couldn't hold on any longer and lay down beside Shen Ji to sleep with him.

Shen Ji hadn't closed the window when he left. The cold wind blew in through the window, and the sleeping person instinctively sought a heat source, moving closer and closer.

Eep, master, master!

Shen Ji's eyelids trembled. He slowly opened his eyes, his pale eyes shifting, then looked up at the person holding him.

Li Zhiyan was sleeping deeply. His silver-white hair was spread on the pillow, trapped under Shen Ji. The pain of having his hair pulled made Li Zhiyan keep shifting toward Shen Ji until he found a position where his hair didn't hurt, but this also caused him to press closer and closer to Shen Ji.

Shen Ji could feel Li Zhiyan's breath on his eyes, and the scent of early snow and clear wind that clung to Li Zhiyan enveloped him.

Shen Ji thought: Their scents are tangled together.

He rubbed his neck and sat up, immediately feeling a pull on his hair.

Turns out even their hair was tangled together.

Shen Ji casually severed the hair. The black strands instantly turned into tendrils of mycelium, passing through Li Zhiyan's body and crawling up to the ceiling to join the small mushrooms there, chirping together.

"Stop making noise," Shen Ji said.

So the small mushrooms fell silent.

He sat up and turned to look out the window. The sky outside was bright; based on the sun's position, it was already noon.

Shen Ji watched for a moment, then spoke. "So hungry."

"Want to eat."

The person beside him shifted. Shen Ji didn't even glance over.

When Li Zhiyan opened his eyes, this was what he saw.

Shen Ji sitting on the bed, gazing out the window. Those pale eyes held no emotion, just calmly watching the scenery outside. His hair seemed shorter than before, now shoulder-length instead of waist-length, giving him a cool, aloof vibe that was very pleasing to the eye.

Li Zhiyan yawned and rubbed his eyes.

"You're awake."

Shen Ji finally looked at him. "Hungry."

"Want to eat, right?" Li Zhiyan rolled his neck, preparing to get up. Now somewhat awake, he looked at Shen Ji, and the next moment, Shen Ji's appearance caught his attention.

When they returned yesterday, he had only taken off Shen Ji's outer coat and pants roughly. Sleeping in clothes was really uncomfortable.

But now, after sleeping for a full day and night, Shen Ji's inner shirt was terribly messy. He made no move to tidy it up and just sat there disheveled.

The white shirt was lifted at one corner, revealing a section of fair, slender waist that looked very touchable.

Further up, because the buttons weren't fastened properly, only the middle button of his shirt was done. With every move Shen Ji made, two pink tips were faintly visible.

Li Zhiyan gasped and immediately got up to pull Shen Ji's clothes back into place.

Shen Ji instinctively tried to dodge, and as he moved, the shirt slipped off his shoulder, this time, it was completely exposed.

Seeing his lack of cooperation, Li Zhiyan directly released the contamination, butterflies fluttering in the air. Shen Ji was captivated by the butterflies, so Li Zhiyan reached out to button his shirt. Shen Ji paid no attention to any of this, his eyes fixed only on the butterflies in the air, and as he reached out to catch them, his body leaned forward.

By accident, he brushed against that sensitive point.

Li Zhiyan:…

Steeling himself, he buttoned up Shen Ji's shirt completely, making sure nothing was exposed anymore. Finally, Li Zhiyan let out a sigh of relief.

He hugged Shen Ji and sighed, "You’re definitely going to kill me once you’re back to your senses."

"Why?" Shen Ji asked him.

Li Zhiyan didn’t move, just held onto Shen Ji, taking in his scent. "Because... because right now you’re not even my boyfriend."

"I don’t even have a proper status."

As he spoke, he started complaining, "Not giving me any status at all, you’re such an awful reporter. I’m going to cry."

Shen Ji, chewing on a butterfly wing, stared at him, as if waiting to see if he would actually cry.

Once he confirmed Li Zhiyan wasn’t crying, Shen Ji immediately lost interest.

He made to get out of bed, but as soon as his legs swung over the edge, Li Zhiyan pulled him back.

"Don’t just go down like that, put on your clothes!" Li Zhiyan insisted.

Shen Ji clicked his tongue. "You’re so troublesome. Mushrooms don’t need to wear clothes."

"This is human territory, you have to live by human habits. Put on your pants!"

And so, Shen Ji was pressed by Li Zhiyan into putting on a pair of trousers pulled from the closet. After all the struggle, Li Zhiyan went out to pick up lunch, specifically emphasizing that Shen Ji shouldn’t go outside randomly. So Shen Ji lounged lazily on the sofa reading, with messy books scattered all over the table.

He kept skimming the books, reading for a while before tossing them aside and picking up the next one.

"What are you looking for?" the system asked curiously.

"A book," Shen Ji replied while continuing to flip through. "A very strange book."

The system didn’t say anything more, just watched as he went through every book in the room.

When Li Zhiyan returned with the takeout container, he saw books spread all over the table and Shen Ji lying on the sofa reading.

He had always known that Shen Ji loved reading. No matter where he went, Shen Ji’s place would always have some books—some professional, some amateur, some even just novels. But he had a habit of flipping through them whenever he had time, and he would always put bookmarks in them.

Buying bookmarks was the only expense on Shen Ji’s salary card.

"Come eat," Li Zhiyan said, tidying up the scattered books on the table and placing them to the side.

He set the takeout container in front of Shen Ji.

Perhaps he was really hungry. Shen Ji tossed the book in his hand onto the sofa and immediately started eating.

Even in his current altered state, Shen Ji’s eating posture was still refined, not at all the primitive manner Li Zhiyan had imagined. He used chopsticks well too, quickly finishing more than half of the food on the plate.

Watching Shen Ji eat, Li Zhiyan picked up a bite of food with his chopsticks.

He tentatively took a bite, and the unpalatable taste made him silently close his eyes.

He and Shen Ji were still different—he really couldn’t swallow it.

Shen Ji finished the food on his plate and looked at Li Zhiyan, so Li Zhiyan pushed his own meal, of which he had only taken one bite, over to Shen Ji. Watching Shen Ji start on the second serving, he ate quickly, as if he had no sense of fullness, and soon finished the second meal.

Li Zhiyan thought: "Shen Ji must be the kind of person all cafeteria staff love the most."

Eats a lot and with gusto, never wastes food.

"Was it good?" Li Zhiyan asked.

"Average," Shen Ji put down his chopsticks, giving off the vibe of someone who bites the hand that feeds him.

"Average, and you ate two portions?"

After saying that, Shen Ji looked at him curiously. "Why aren’t you eating?"

"I, well..." Li Zhiyan sighed. "I can’t eat human food. I think it tastes terrible."

Shen Ji understood.

Actually, most pollutants were like this. No pollutant would eat human food, especially S-class pollutants. They all feed on contamination. The little butterflies in Moth Valley hadn’t developed mouths capable of eating human food either.

How pitiful.

So Shen Ji generously picked two small mushrooms from nearby and placed them in front of Li Zhiyan.

He said enthusiastically, "Here, eat these!"

Li Zhiyan:…

Although he was touched, looking at the small mushrooms reminded him of the time in Puppet City when the mycelium burrowed into his body and even sprouted out to wave about.

These things were alive. He didn’t eat living things.

Seeing Li Zhiyan not moving, Shen Ji asked, "Don’t you eat mushrooms?"

"Not ones with consciousness."

Shen Ji gave him a look that said 'you’re so picky,' then reached out his hand. The next moment, a small mushroom from the ceiling descended and placed something into his palm, while the small mushrooms on the table scampered away immediately.

Li Zhiyan watched as Shen Ji placed a bone in front of him.

A bleached white human bone, with blue flame burning within the bone marrow. It was obvious where Shen Ji had picked it up from.

"No self-awareness," Shen Ji said.

Li Zhiyan:…

He let out a heavy sigh, inexplicably feeling like he had a house cat that went out hunting and brought a mouse back to his dinner table.

Although it was adorable and touching, he really couldn’t make himself eat it.

Shen Ji, watching Li Zhiyan’s conflicted expression, curled the corners of his mouth slightly into a smug smile.

Only then did Li Zhiyan realize he had been messing with him on purpose all along.

This guy’s taste for mischief had never changed.

You awful mushroom!

"You said my name is Shen Ji. Does that mean I’ve recovered my memories from when I was human?" Shen Ji shifted topics. "Li Zhiyan?"

Li Zhiyan glanced at him, "Rather than recovering your memories from when you were human, it seems more like you've regained your memories from when you were contaminated."

Shen Ji subtly raised an eyebrow, "Is that so?"

"Then, have I ever mentioned my experiences as a human to you?"

Li Zhiyan put away the lunchbox from the table and looked at Shen Ji when he heard this.

Shen Ji hadn’t told him much about his past; at most, he knew that Shen Ji used to be a journalist, his parents divorced and he lived with his grandfather, after his grandfather passed away he cut ties with his family, put himself through school and supported himself, and eventually ended up in this world on his own.

Apart from that, Shen Ji kept everything else well hidden; he was completely secretive, so Li Zhiyan had no clue about his history.

"No."

Shen Ji just lay back on the sofa, "I've been looking for you this whole time."

"Looking for me?"

"Li Zhiyan, an S-Class Mutant from the Pollution Prevention Center, actually awakened three years ago, someone who's been in a dormant state since the Red Mist Incident, right? You're the closest person to the pre-Red Mist era that I could find."

Li Zhiyan realized something from Shen Ji's words.

That is: Shen Ji seemed to have discovered him long ago.

He noticed my existence even earlier than I did.

Hui had never been observed by the Pollution Prevention Center; the small mushroom never harmed humans, just nibbled and ate pollutants everywhere, but he could so easily figure out Li Zhiyan's secret, even to the point of having gotten his hands on evidence; last time he even said he'd report it.

"You've been paying attention to me for that long?" Li Zhiyan put on a touched expression, "How sinful of me, I actually didn't notice."

"If I had noticed, we could've met much sooner."

"I really regret that!"

Shen Ji: ...

Is this butterfly out of its mind?

When he finished, Li Zhiyan sat down next to Shen Ji, "So what did you want with me?"

"The person closest to the Red Mist Incident? Are you investigating the Red Mist Incident?"

"Not the Red Mist Incident." Shen Ji said, "Do you know about a book?"

"A book?"

Shen Ji glanced at the books stacked by Li Zhiyan, "I call it the 'Prophecy Book'."

"The 'Prophecy Book' appeared before the Red Mist Incident; it was a documented bizarre event clearly recorded prior to the Red Mist. That book recorded the future many years later, and as time passed, the content in the book continued to update. After the Red Mist Incident, it caused quite a stir for a while."

After hearing this, a memory instantly popped into Li Zhiyan's head.

Come to think of it, before the Red Mist Incident, there was indeed such a rumor.

It was said: a strange novel appeared on everyone's phones, like a virus that couldn't be deleted, but the document in the phone updated every day. They couldn't find the author or which website the novel was published on.

Because it was so creepy, netizens treated it as a fabricated urban legend, and most people didn't believe it.

Li Zhiyan nodded, "Seems like there really was such a thing, but why are you investigating this?"

Shen Ji smiled, but there was no warmth in his eyes; his pale eyes were full of coldness.

"Pollution has always existed. Since written records began, there have been cases similar to pollution sickness all over the world, but most were hastily dismissed as 'mental illness' or 'possession.' In reality, the higher-ups had already noticed these events and began investigating, but unfortunately, the Red Mist Incident broke out before they could find the cause."

"Did you know? It's one of them."

"I was polluted before the Red Mist Incident broke out."