The two old rogues had a completely shameless banter without resolving any actual issues, instead wasting the time that should have been used for proper business.
Wolf Dog had extremely strong receptive abilities and soon made inferences from the results, tsk-tsking twice and saying, “No wonder back then Jiang Huan looked at you with such a strange gaze, not at all like looking at an older brother…”
“What was it like then?”
“Like looking at cabbage he wanted to plow.”
“…”
Shen Shanwu threw him a death stare. “I’m leaving. You take care of yourself.”
“Why are you leaving so soon? What are you going to do about Jiang Huan? Accept or reject him?”
“Haven’t decided yet.”
“Oh, come on, you’ve got at least a fifty-fifty chance of accepting him.”
“…”
“But you… are different from us. If you’re cautious and careful, you can really stay in the major base.” Wolf Dog spoke with a tinge of melancholy, “But not me. I’m afraid of getting involved with humans and ending up like ‘Tibetan’…”
‘Tibetan,’ one of the nine mutants, was codenamed after his ethnicity. He was a robust man, standing at 195 centimeters tall, and many years ago, Shen Shanwu and the other mutants traveled four thousand miles to the border region to welcome him. His skin was dark, and he had a resolute appearance.
The crucial point was that he couldn’t communicate with the other mutants, and they would often end up fighting with each other. Shen Shanwu was puzzled by this newcomer’s strong aggression until he learned that Tibetan’s childhood sweetheart had just died yesterday.
The beautiful and strong young lady didn’t meet her end at the claws of the zombies or perish from hunger, cold, or radiation. She died because she accepted the return of her mutant lover, got intimate with the ‘zombies,’ and was labeled as an ‘ill-omened person.’ Her companions, who had experienced life and death together, drenched her in fuel and burned her alive.
After that incident, Tibetan never set foot in any human gathering places again. He didn’t leave with the prophet, either. Instead, he remained in the depths of the plateau, guarding the place where he and his deceased lover had grown up together, relying on the vast sky and the layered mountains as his companions.
Apart from Shen Shanwu, only one other of the nine mutants lived with humans, and that was ‘Milk Tea’ in Wuyou City, also the only woman among them. Before the apocalypse, she was a broadcaster, and she refrained from eating recklessly to maintain her figure. Even after mutating, she no longer had to worry about that, but the delicious snacks were either expired or out of production. She ended up resorting to gnawing on tree bark in frustration.
It was said that she initially wanted to give herself a nickname like ‘Extra Spicy Snail Rice Noodles,’ but after the prophet repeatedly explained that it wasn’t a net name and they wouldn’t provide name-change cards, she reluctantly changed it to the more smooth-sounding ‘Milk Tea’.
The reason Milk Tea stayed in Wuyou City was that her best friend was there. The sisterhood between the two girls was a solid friendship that allowed them to trust each other with their lives, which made Shen Shanwu, who had been betrayed by his boyfriend, truly envious.
Once Wolf Dog finished his step and secretly hid two nail fragments, Shen Shanwu happened to sway back toward Yao Wuque.
Yao Wuque couldn’t help but laugh out loud, “Jiang Tong, you’ve redefined the meaning of ‘ten minutes.’ Class is already over; why are you coming back?”
“To attend the next class?”
“Wait and see. I may not be able to teach you a lesson, but I know someone who can. After school today, I’m going to report everything to your dad!”
“…”
In fact, Jiang Huan really could deal with Jiang Tong, but recently he was busy with who knows what, not holding meetings or going to training. He only returned to the headquarters earlier and earlier each evening, then spent the whole night alone in his bedroom.
On the third day, Shen Shanwu felt too embarrassed to let Jiang Huan continue guarding alone, so he spent over an hour studying the route from Jiang Tong’s room to the captain’s bedroom on the top floor. He planned to revisit Jiang Huan’s bed in the dead of the following night.
However, as it often happens with plans like “going tomorrow” or “quitting after this job,” something unexpected came up. Shen Shanwu’s nocturnal arrangement was unfortunately rendered useless due to an urgent mission that was suddenly assigned to the Shanhai Unit the next morning. Jiang Huan hurriedly returned to his room without even finishing his breakfast, packed his belongings, and quickly gathered with the other ten elite members at the main entrance of the administrative building to depart.
Yao Wuque was not part of the mission this time. He stood together with Jiang Tong, who had decided to stay by his side all day. With a frown, Yao Wuque waved at Zhong Yin and said, “Make sure to protect Xiaowen.”
“It’s you who needs to take care of Xiao Tong,” Zhang Xiaowen anxiously reminded him, “Don’t forget to keep an eye on his meals, supervise his homework at night, and you must make him stop his habit of throwing clothes around.”
Yao Wuque: “…”
Jiang Huan, draped in a white cloak, with one hand gripping a new metal mask, gazed into the sky, lost in thought. After a while, he seemed to sigh helplessly and turn his gaze back to the earthly realm. He first walked up and gently touched Jiang Tong’s hair, saying, “Be good.”
Then he turned to Xu Ye and asked, “Has the Xincheng Unit arrived?”
The Xincheng Unit was the second team at the coastal base, led by Chen Kaijia’s father, the team that Shen Shanwu had offended before. They had sent two cups of watermelon juice as a ‘peace offering,’ which had stayed in the fridge overnight, and Shen Shanwu didn’t touch a drop of it.
This time, it turned out to be a joint mission between the two teams, and Shen Shanwu had no idea about the specifics, but he figured it must be quite tricky.
They waited downstairs for less than a minute when two camouflaged off-road vehicles slowly approached and parked. From the vehicles stepped someone that none of them had expected—Zhong Yun, Zhong Yin’s sister.
Zhong Yin’s eyebrows furrowed instantly, surprised. “Why would they let my sister lead the Xincheng Unit this time? Don’t they know it’s a joint mission with Shanhai?”
Xu Ye was equally astonished. He glanced at the captain’s expression, took a couple of steps forward, and approached Zhong Yun, initiating a conversation. Considering Zhong Yun’s position in Xincheng as the lieutenant, it shouldn’t be an issue for him, as the lieutenant of Shanhai, to greet her.
“Lieutenant Zhong, why are you leading the mission this time…?”
Zhong Yun, clad in a black protective suit, exuded a heroic presence and was indeed a stunning beauty. “I’m sorry, Lieutenant Xu, but it was the captain’s decision. I did raise objections, but for some reason, he was very determined and insisted that I take on this joint mission.”
“Do you really persistently disagree?” Zhong Yin said discontentedly. She understood her sister well, and she knew that Zhong Yun’s affection for Jiang Huan had never wavered. It was very likely that when the Xincheng Unit captain proposed Zhong Yun as the leader for the joint mission, Zhong Yun had already been hesitant.
“Yin Yin!” Zhong Yun reproached, but she didn’t firmly deny her words either.
Yao Wuque had witnessed how Jiang Tong had ‘teased’ Chen Kaijia with his own eyes, and he cursed in frustration, “Damn Chen idiot, his mind is smaller than a needle. Can children’s playful matters be extended to the squad’s missions? Isn’t this childish?”
He had no knowledge of Shen Shanwu’s later whispering in Chen Kaijia’s ear, and naturally, he was unaware of the true reason for the captain’s anger.
Shen Shanwu blinked nervously and looked at Jiang Huan’s expression. He noticed the slight discomfort on Jiang Huan’s face when Zhong Yun made it clear that the participation of the Xincheng Unit members would not change. Slowly, Jiang Huan took out his identification card from the pocket of his combat suit.
His pitch-black, profound eyes traced across the back of the ID card as if gazing at an incomparable treasure—his own unique collection. Shen Shanwu didn’t directly see Jiang Huan slip the birthday card he had given him into the transparent sleeve of the ID card, but a casual association made him understand immediately.
“…” Shen Shanwu couldn’t help but grit his teeth and step back behind Yao Wuque, pressing his ice-cold hand against his flushed cheek. Did this bastard, Jiang Huan, have no shame? How could he be so oblivious about hiding his feelings?!
Oh, this… This is really embarrassing…
But soon, Shen Shanwu realized that Jiang Huan also had no idea about the things he was doing in front of his crush…
His current embarrassment would probably be returned to Jiang Huan tenfold in the future… With this thought, Shen Shanwu silently transformed his embarrassment into shame, hoping that Jiang Huan would be strong enough, and that his heart could bear it.
After a moment, Jiang Huan put his ID card back in place and said expressionlessly, “That’s it then, let’s go.”
Hearing this, Zhong Yun’s eyes brightened noticeably, and she nodded happily, turning to the Xincheng Unit members to give the order to set off.
Xu Ye wouldn’t question Jiang Huan’s decision. Since the captain agreed to let Zhong Yun lead the joint squad, it meant that he believed his psychological condition wouldn’t be a problem. However, Zhong Yin, as Zhong Yun’s sister, pursed her lips disapprovingly and boarded the vehicle with a stern face. Zhang Xiaowen waved again to Jiang Tong and Yao Wuque, and they heard Jiang Tong shout loudly from behind, “I’ll think of you all the time! Be safe and come back early!”
“… Jiang Tong is such a kid…” Xu Ye shook his head helplessly in his seat. “He really is all talk and no action.”
“Exactly, he’s all talk from head to toe.” Zhang Xiaowen also shook her head. “Wuque said he skips classes all the time at school. Captain, you must take good care of him after this mission.”
Jiang Huan kept his head slightly lowered, his face expressionless, and his gaze unfocused. He didn’t react to Zhang Xiaowen’s advice at all.
Alright, the captain is setting a leading example by being absent-minded and wandering in his own world. Xu Ye couldn’t help but feel that Shanhai Unit was definitely doomed.
*
As soon as the vehicle carrying Jiang Huan exited the base gate, Shen Shanwu turned his world upside down, sleeping in class during the day, and staying out all night.
His homeroom teacher, Mr. Tao, had no idea how to deal with him. Shen Shanwu could answer questions and participate in class discussions effortlessly during academic lessons, but when he was deemed to be disrupting the class order and punished by standing, he would fall asleep even while standing; in physical education class, his physical fitness surpassed boys three grades above him, and when punished to run around the playground, he would complete the task in a flash, and then disappear again.
Although he had become a notorious troublemaker at school during the day, the progress in finding new mutants at night was not making any headway.
Wolf Dog almost stuck his nose to the ground and plowed through the back hill, but found nothing except for two pairs of men and women who came here for a midnight tryst.
Later, he even brought the Prophet into the school. The Prophet was initially excited, confidently affirming that it must be somewhere nearby. However, when asked to narrow down the search area, he couldn’t do it. So, the two noses plowed through the back hill again, but still, they found nothing.
Shen Shanwu didn’t want to contribute his nose to keep plowing the land with them. He took out the school map he had drawn while skipping classes and wandering around all these days. In the dark night, his two red eyes were enchantingly dazzling as he said, “The fact that we can’t find anything this way proves that the new companion is not in the back hill at all. But there are abundant traces of human activity in other areas of the school, which inevitably means he will come into contact with humans.”
“I still insist that he has no ability to disguise himself…” the Prophet said. “It will take some time for me to accurately sense his location. If we can’t find him, we can only wait… Oh, I’m afraid of something like what happened with Hugo, so every time a new mutant appears, I’m always eager to find them as soon as possible.”
“…Both of you,” Wolf Dog and Shen Shanwu looked at the Prophet seriously and silently. But the next moment, the Prophet changed the heavy topic and smiled, asking, “Do you want to go somewhere for a late-night snack? The Executioner caught quite a lot of crayfish during the day.”
“It’s already the end of September. Are the crayfish still plump and juicy?” Food-lover Shen Shanwu threw out a soulful question.
The Prophet pinched his cute and tender face. “Stop talking nonsense, do you want to eat or not?”
“Eat!”
*
It has been five days since Jiang Han left for the mission. Without Zhang Xiaowen, Zhong Yin, and Xu Ye chatting and boasting together at the dining table, Yao Wuque felt uninterested in his meal. Lu Jingzhi took on the task of urging Jiang Tong not to be picky with his food, holding Shen Shanwu’s head to make him finish the bowl of stick noodle soup.
Shen Shanwu reluctantly let out a burp with a taste of crayfish and continued to drink the porridge.
“Drink faster,” Teacher Yao urged, “You’ll be late for class, although you sleep during class anyway.”
“He sleeps during class?” Lu Jingzhi pinched Shen Shanwu’s ear and was about to scold him. However, at that moment, a panting member of the Shanhai Unit suddenly rushed into the cafeteria. His face was full of anxiety, and he called out for the deputy captain. Then he leaned close to Lu Jingzhi’s ear and said a few words.
Lu Jingzhi’s face turned pale in an instant. He stood up abruptly, and his breathing became unusually rapid. He steadied himself by supporting the table and calmly ordered, “Call back the members of the Xincheng Unit, prepare the luggage and vehicles, gather in the briefing room within five minutes, and be ready at any moment.”
Saying that, Lu Jingzhi walked towards the briefing room without looking back. Yao Wuque hurriedly followed, looking nervous, “Lieutenant, what’s happening? Is it something about the captain…”
“It’s nothing, take Jiang Tong to school,” Lu Jingzhi’s face showed that something was indeed wrong, something significant, but he refused to admit it verbally. Yao Wuque and Shen Shanwu exchanged glances and tacitly followed Lu Jingzhi into the briefing room.
The author has something to say:
First, let me clarify that the following does not need to be memorized. It’s just a casual summary of nine mutants: Top Student (Shen Shanwu), Wolf Dog, Prophet, Manager, Hugo, Executioner, CEO, Milk Tea, and Tibetan.
Among them, Wolf Dog, Prophet, and Executioner do not lean towards any faction. Hugo hates humans because of being experimented on.
The CEO’s position is influenced by his son, who leans towards the Central Alliance; Milk Tea is influenced by her best friend, who leans towards Wuyou City; Tibetan is located in the Peaceful Zone, with a love-hate attitude; the Manager leans towards Anping North Region, but the reason has not been written (not yet decided).
Shen Shanwu can change body shape; Wolf Dog can use nail space jumping and carry another mutant; Executioner can fly; Prophet has precognitive abilities…
