Chapter 19: Professor Yan Has Quite a Heavy Appetite

Chapter 19: This Professor Yan's Got a Heavy Appetite

The hallway was freezing, with a biting draft, and houses go to seed fast when nobody's lived in them for a while.

Rong Hua was at the front, leading the charge, kicking down doors as the team fought their way up floor by floor.

They ran into a few stray zombies along the way, mostly desiccated husks with missing limbs, and Rong Hua's thorny vines snapped their necks in an instant.

Just as they stepped onto the fourth-floor landing, a small, hunched shadow came tearing out like a maniac from a hidden corner behind a busted fire extinguisher cabinet, carrying a sickening wave of blood stench.

It was a zombie kid, maybe ten years old, still had on a torn-up school uniform, half hanging off it. Its withered face had nothing left but a pair of blood-red, bulging dead eyes, with a mouth full of jagged black teeth. It made a beeline for Yun Ying in the middle of the group.

It was so fast that Yun Ying froze, stunned.

Qi Zhuo was quick on the draw, throwing up an earth barrier in front of Yun Ying and sending the little zombie flying.

Yun Ying took half a step back, the zombie kid's nails having ripped a chunk right out of her clothes. Her heart still racing, she stared hard at the body slumped in the corner, its head completely separated from its neck. A flicker of pity and sorrow passed through her eyes, then a chill of delayed terror. She clutched her chest and muttered under her breath.

"...That was way too close. Thank God I didn't get bitten. I don't have Brother Mu's freakish superpowered constitution, totally immune to the zombie virus. If that thing had gotten a bite on me, I'd be screwed."

She said it without thinking, but the words hit home.

Shu Hanqing, standing nearby, heard that and was reminded that Mu Ye really was one of those insanely rare first-generation superpowered people.

When the apocalypse first hit, the world crumbled into a bloody hellscape.

Society had fallen apart, the medical system was dead, and anyone who got bitten by a zombie would mutate horrifically within moments, turning into a mindless, shambling corpse.

And the first superpowered humans were born from this extinction-level culling, surviving against impossible odds.

People called them virus-killers back then, and Mu Ye was one of those one-in-ten-thousand first-generation superpowered people.

Shu Hanqing still remembered when the apocalyptic tide swept through [their city], they were a bunch of unarmed, defenseless students trapped, and Mu Ye was the one who led them to the safe zone.

It was on the run that, to save Shu Hanqing, Mu Ye got bitten on the left arm by a zombie, almost ripping a chunk of flesh clean off. To this day, a scar that will never fade still coils around his arm.

Back then, being bitten meant death.

To keep the group from losing it, and to keep Shu Hanqing from having to watch him rot, Mu Ye hid the wound, which was oozing black blood, under thick bandages.

On a night of pouring rain, he slipped out of camp alone, without a sound, leaving Shu Hanqing a goodbye letter scrawled in a hurry, planning to wait alone for death and the mutation to take him.

For the greater good, the others in the group had all deliberately kept it from Shu Hanqing.

The next day, when Shu Hanqing realized Mu Ye was gone, he pressed for answers and finally found out Mu Ye had been bitten and had gone off to die alone.

Shu Hanqing couldn't handle that kind of separation back then.

He broke down and went crazy, insisting on going back the way they came to find him.

The companions who had survived life-and-death together grabbed hold of him, pressing down on his shoulders to make him see reason: "Shu Hanqing! Can you be mature for once! Who did Mu Ye leave alone to die for? He did it so you could live! Are you really going to waste the path to survival he bought with his life?"

Shu Hanqing trembled all over, biting his lip until it bled, saying he understood, that he would listen and keep moving forward.

But that night, once the entire camp had fallen into deep sleep, Shu Hanqing still slipped away alone, running back the way they came.

He couldn't just abandon Mu Ye with a clear conscience.

At that moment, Shu Hanqing thought to himself, even if Mu Ye couldn't make it and turned into a zombie, then so be it—he'd rather die at his hands.

By then, Shu Hanqing had already lost everything. Not long after the disaster struck, his family was gone, his close friends were gone, and the whole world was becoming one massive mass grave.

Only Mu Ye was left.

He even thought with a certain resolve that he might as well die together with Mu Ye.

After all, there was nothing left in this world worth living for anyway.

Those deliberately forgotten memories, once torn open, surged through his mind like a floodgate bursting.

Shu Hanqing still remembered walking for an entire night.

For over ten hours, he had no idea where Mu Ye had gone. He thought he would die out there, the icy rain soaking his clothes through, clinging coldly to his back.

It wasn't until dawn broke that Shu Hanqing, relying on memory, found his way back to a mountain shelter they had briefly stayed at—a wooden house rebuilt by survivors, with many people crowded inside.

But before he could even get close, blinding flames tore through the morning light.

When Shu Hanqing found Mu Ye, a massive fire had inexplicably erupted there.

Rolling black smoke mixed with a pungent stench of burning filled the air, and Mu Ye sat silently in the very center of the blazing inferno, his head hanging in defeat.

The flames licked at the crumbling walls beside him, sparks crackling and landing on his shoulders.

Shu Hanqing's mind went blank. Braving the scorching smoke and the threat of collapsing beams, he charged headlong into that searing sea of fire.

He knelt before Mu Ye and wrapped his arms around him.

Mu Ye, who had already closed his eyes awaiting death, suddenly snapped them open at that moment. Seeing Shu Hanqing before him, the veins on his forehead bulged as he told Shu Hanqing to leave now, to get as far away as possible.

Shu Hanqing shook his head. Listening to those cold words meant to push him away, he didn't let go—instead, he pressed his entire body tightly into Mu Ye's embrace. His words carried no fear, only a chilling calm.

"I don't want to. Senior brother, if you die, I won't live either."

Crimson flames raged around them, devouring everything in sight. The blackened wooden main beam above let out a groaning protest under the strain, on the verge of collapsing at any moment.

Shu Hanqing squeezed his eyes shut amid the falling sparks, thinking with a mix of sorrow and relief that being burned alive would hurt terribly.

But the agonizing pain he expected never came.

In the end, Mu Ye couldn't bring himself to be cruel.

At that critical moment of life and death, Mu Ye shielded Shu Hanqing entirely in his arms, and through a sea of fire and scorched earth, he carried him desperately and burst out of the collapsing ruins.

When they both crashed heavily to the ground, Shu Hanqing was still lost in the shock of what had just happened, gasping for breath.

Behind them, the building was swallowed by towering flames, collapsing into a charred pile of rubble.

And Mu Ye knelt before Shu Hanqing, shaking his head in agony.

A few strands of singed, disheveled black hair fell across his face, obscuring most of his pale features.

Shu Hanqing watched as Mu Ye raised his right hand, trembling—and in his palm, a violent crimson flame gathered and danced out of thin air.

"I'm... a monster now." Mu Ye stared fixedly at the flame in his hand. "I shouldn't be alive, Hanqing. I shouldn't be alive."

Shu Hanqing was stunned as well.

Mu Ye's expression was always cold and aloof when he wasn't smiling, but at that moment, illuminated by the crimson flame, he looked indescribably pitiful and helpless.

Shu Hanqing reached out and tightly gripped Mu Ye's palm that held the flame, hastily wiping the tears from his face with his sleeve as he said with utmost sincerity, "You're not a monster, you haven't turned into a zombie. There's definitely a way..."

"Let's go to the safe zone. They'll have a solution there. Everything will be fine..."

Mu Ye looked at him, his usually rational eyes filled with dazed confusion. It was a long moment before he finally nodded.

Later, after enduring countless hardships, the two of them finally reached the safe zone, where Mu Ye could already control the flames that appeared out of thin air with ease.

At that time, Shu Hanqing made the best of a bad situation. He caught some prey and told Mu Ye to just treat himself as a portable grill.

Mu Ye gave him a helpless smile.

After passing through layers of quarantine and rigorous military inspections, they finally learned that it wasn't some sign of infection that would turn him into a monster, but rather a top-tier evolutionary gift that countless people in this new world could only dream of.

Shu Hanqing's water ability was later catalyzed by taking the first batch of high-purity cell-inducing drugs provided by the base's research institute.

Mu Ye didn't join the military faction. Instead, they formed a small team and became battle comrades who seemed inseparable to outsiders.

And then.

There was no "and then" after that.

As the team grew, the weight on Mu Ye's shoulders increased, and his thoughts became more and more unreadable.

Shu Hanqing never asked what happened to the people from that shelter back then. Mu Ye began fiddling with his prayer beads day after day, playing the merciful bodhisattva in this chaotic world.

Having lived two lifetimes, Shu Hanqing had indeed resented Mu Ye's obtuseness and reticence.

But Yun Ying's mention of "first-generation superpowered individual" brought back too many memories for Shu Hanqing.

In both of his lives, Shu Hanqing had never truly hated the senior fellow disciple who had once protected him with his life.

The residential building had eight cramped, separate units crammed onto each floor.

Shu Hanqing held a deep blue crystal core in his palm and was about to sidestep into the pitch-black room at the far end.

Rong Hua cut in from the side, blocking Shu Hanqing behind him.

Shu Hanqing said, "I have superpowers and can protect myself just fine. The search area's too big—splitting up would be more efficient."

Hearing this, Rong Hua turned around, annoyed. "Weren't you the one who told me to follow you?"

Shu Hanqing replied, "Not like this. I don't need you shadowing me every step of the way. Go check the next unit."

Rong Hua said he got it, then turned and dragged Yun Ying over, shoving her next to Shu Hanqing without another word.

"Fine, your call. Yun Ying's staying with you. The layout here's too fragmented. If you run into any high-level mutants in there, just scream my name at the top of your lungs—or have Yun Ying do it. She's got a loud voice. I'll hear it from next door, and even if I have to tear this wall down, I'll be there in a flash!"

Yun Ying, being used as a human loudspeaker, rolled her eyes hard.

Shu Hanqing said he got it, then moved on to the next unit, stepping expressionlessly over the rusted, warped security door threshold.

The lighting inside was terrible, and the air was thick with dust and the smell of rot. He and Yun Ying cautiously searched the dim living room and bedroom, but aside from broken glass scattered on the floor and a few shriveled rats that had starved to death in the corners, they found nothing alive. It was a completely empty apartment.

Yun Ying tucked her pistol back into her pocket, patting dust off her shoulder with the back of her hand as she muttered dejectedly, "...Brother Shu, if we weren't worried about making too much noise and alerting the hundreds of mutated zombies hiding in this building, we could've just stood downstairs with a megaphone and yelled Professor Yan's name. Would've saved us time and effort. Why are we stumbling around here like headless chickens?"

They moved on to the next apartment.

Yun Ying thought of something else, her expression turning guarded as she lowered her voice. "But seriously, that legendary chief professor's been missing in the fallen zone for this long. Whether he's even alive is anyone's guess."

"And earlier downstairs, that Commander Lei gave us all orders—said the most important mission is to find the black briefcase Professor Yan carries with him. Even if the man himself is dead, that briefcase absolutely has to be brought back to the base intact, right?"

Shu Hanqing listened to Yun Ying.

He thought to himself, *He's not gonna die that easily.*

Who was Yan Shenyun? He was one of the main characters in this world's storyline. There was no way he'd die just like that in some desolate residential building like this.

Besides, Yan Shenyun's brain was far more valuable than all his research put together.

Even though top-tier psychic superpowered individuals were indeed physically frail, that didn't mean he had no tricks up his sleeve for self-preservation.

The two of them didn't linger in the empty unit on the fourth floor and headed up to the fifth.

At the end of the hallway, several closed doors looked eerily ominous in the dim light.

Shu Hanqing stopped in front of the leftmost door. He slowly raised his right hand, the energy-saturated blue crystal core in his palm glowing faintly in the darkness, as a wisp of white mist condensed from pure water ability formed between his fingers.

"Yun Ying, which door do you pick?"

Yun Ying hesitated between two identical doors for a moment, then raised her hand and pointed to the leftmost one—the one that looked slightly cleaner.

Shu Hanqing tilted his head and tersely said two words: "Stand back."

Yun Ying stepped back.

Shu Hanqing's right hand, gripping the crystal core, slammed forward.

With a sharp crack as the high-grade crystal core was instantly drained of energy and shattered, a violent water blade slammed into the rusted lock like a heavy hammer.

The whole door burst open, sending years of dust flying.

Shu Hanqing stepped inside without a second's hesitation.

Instead of the expected scene of a zombie lunging at him, as the dust settled, a sight utterly out of place in this dead, fallen city came into view.

It was a strikingly handsome man.

Breathtakingly gorgeous, to say the least.

His features were well-defined yet not harsh, with a pair of glasses perched on his nose. The man exuded elegance and refinement, capability and coldness. Even after being trapped in this dark, waterless, foodless ruin for so long, he showed no signs of panic or disarray.

At that moment, Yan Shenyun sat calmly at the dark dining table in the living room.

In front of him was a can he'd just pried open with a Swiss Army knife. Judging by the faint aroma, it was a can that hadn't quite expired yet.

Such an ordinary food item, yet he was savoring it with the air of a fine dining experience at a three-Michelin-star restaurant.

The creak of the forcibly opened door echoed through the room.

Yan Shenyun held his fork and met Shu Hanqing's stunned gaze with perfect composure, showing not a trace of surprise or panic at being ambushed.

But what was even more unsettling than the man's elegance was the other figure sitting upright across from him.

At the opposite side of the table sat a mutated zombie, its body rotting and grotesque. It wore a tattered suit—likely an ordinary office worker before the apocalypse. Its fingernails had grown grotesquely long, weapons that should have been primed to tear into flesh, yet at this moment they hung limply, its head drooping.

Shu Hanqing said to the storyline narrator, "...This Professor Yan has quite the appetite, huh."

The narrator: "..."