Chapter 48

Ye Zhizhou still remembered, the first time he ate the marrow cleansing pill he had spent a difficult half an hour on the toilet. He eyed Zhong Qiu attentively, tensely, ready to kick him out of the car at any moment should the other need to solve his physiological problem.

Being stared at by Ye Zhizhou, Zhong Qiu felt happy but had misgivings at the same time. His hands couldn’t stop from reaching out to hold him, and then caressed the man’s back suggestively. “You like me this much?”

Ye Zhizhou pulled the lecher’s paws off of his back. He looked at his wristwatch and madly poked the system in his mind, “Tongtian, it’s been about an hour since he’s taken the marrow cleansing pill, why hasn’t anything come out? Could it be that the marrow cleansing pill has no effect on zombie virus?”

The small mirror in his pocket vibrated. It emitted a light screen which then turned into a light beam that scanned Zhong Qiu from head to toe. There was a mechanical ‘clack’ and the screen popped out:

[The target of the medicine hasn’t eaten for more than half a month. Host, please believe in the system(‘s given pills).]

Hasn’t eaten for half a month… He lowered his head and lifted up the hem of the other man’s shirt— he actually had abs! He swept a feel again, based on the feel, it was totally unlike what a man who was starved for half a month should feel like!

“Zhong Qiu, are you hungry?”

Feeling his touch Zhong Qiu’s eyes grew deeper. He also slipped his hand under his clothes, closed in for a kiss and said suggestively, “Hungry. Have you decided to feed me?”

Ye Zhizhou’s lips pursed. He glared at Zhong Qiu; this pervert has a brain filled with dirty crap! He took out a yoghurt cup and opened the seal, inserting a straw in it. He poked the man’s face directly and also patiently pulled off the man’s hand on his back, saying with a hard tone, “Eat!”

Zhong Qiu glanced at the yoghurt in front of him, then turned away from it, “I’d rather drink your ‘milk’.”

Still energetic, huh! He crushed the yoghurt cup in his hand, splat, the white liquid spurted on Zhong Qiu’s face. “You think, can I or can’t I make you unable to use your thing that spurts milk for your whole life!?”

“Xiao Chen, you’re so naughty.” Zhong Qiu licked the yoghurt on the corner of his lips and frowned in distaste. “Is that yoghurt expired? It’s disgusting.”

Disgusting? He was taken aback; he sniffed the yoghurt and also took a sip, his tongue clicked as he tasted it. “It’s not spoiled. How can something in my space expire.”

He saw Zhong Qiu still eyeing the yoghurt with dislike and a brilliant idea flashed through his mind. He took out a dagger, deftly cut open his finger and put it inside Zhong Qiu’s mouth. “How does my blood taste?”

“Xiao Chen!” Zhong Qiu spat out his finger with a dark face. “What are you doing!”

“Does my blood taste sweet?” A sense of powerlessness filled his heart. He took out a plaster bandage and wrapped his cut finger, the light in his eyes dimmed, “Could it be that you can’t eat any human food anymore?”

“So you were worrying about this…” Zhong Qiu’s heart softened, he held Ye Zhizhou and stroked his hair. “Rest assured, right now I don’t need food to go on and there’s no effect on my body. It’ll be alright once the antivirus is developed, don’t worry.”

Ye Zhizhou’s eyes showed a renewed hope. He stroked Zhong Qiu’s face, “Then, are you a bit better now? The pill I gave you, did it do anything to the virus in your body?”

“It did.” Zhong Qiu nodded, his naughty hands felt up his back again, “Haven’t you noticed it? My transformation back to zombie form was delayed. The zombie virus injected in my body had been improved, it’s a purer form of the original virus. So we need to test that pill again when we get to the base.”

To his surprise the pill only delayed the time. This was far worse than what Ye Zhizhou expected. He put on a relieved smile and nestled into Zhong Qiu’s embrace, but inside he went straight to poke the system worriedly, “Tongtian, is the marrow cleansing pill ineffective against the zombie virus?”

[The world’s natural law. For an important aspect of the world, the effect of products from outside of that world may weaken depending on the situation.]n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

“Then the marrow cleansing pills from before….”

[Had a weaker effect too.]

He rubbed his face and recalled the high leveled zombies who could see through the scent hiding pill’s effect occasionally, his heart chilled. “Then, if Zhong Qiu developed the cure using the marrow cleansing pill, would it weaken the destructive effect on the virus?”

[Things discovered by the native people will have the full 100% effect on the matters of their own world.]

That’s good… Now he can only hope Zhong Qiu could try his hardest to produce the cure as soon as possible.

Ye Zhizhou fell asleep in Zhong Qiu’s arms. Zhong Qiu took a glance of his beloved’s docile sleeping face as they approached the base’s large gate, his lips curved up and he hugged the man tighter.

Their fleet of cars were long and many and most were military trucks, so they quickly attracted the attention of the base’s higher-ups. Before all of their members could be listed they invited Liu Tao and the other Annan base leaders for a meeting inside.

B city’s base had three gates. There was a several kilometer distance gap between the first and second gate. This was the surveillance area, densely packed with rows of cars, and inside were all people waiting for the observation period to be over. This fleet of theirs was exceedingly special that they specially designated a place for them to stay.

Ye Zhizhou was woken up by a slight jolt, he drowsily opened his eyes, the first thing he saw was precisely Zhong Qiu’s beautiful chin. He was startled awake and saw that Zhong Qiu was carrying him as he walked, and he immediately struggled to get down on the ground. He asked while looking around him, “We arrived at the base?”

“We’re here.” Zhong Qiu who was looking forlornly at his hands in turn pulled Ye Zhizhou forward by his hand. “They looked for uncle Liu to have a talk, uncle Li is counting the number of people in the fleet and distributing lunch.”

He nodded to show that he understood, then looked at the big square metal gate ahead dubiously. “What’s this place? What did you bring me here for?”

Zhong Qiu didn’t respond. He pulled him forward until they stopped at a small door by the corner of the metal gate then showed his ID to the soldiers guarding the door. The soldier confirmed his identity and saluted him, opening the little door’s movable window.

On the other side of the window stood a solemn faced old man. On their side, Zhong Qiu grasped Ye Zhizhou’s shoulder and smiled at the old man, “Grandpa, this is Liu Chen, my boyfriend. Soon to be my lifetime partner.”

Ye Zhizhou was stunned, what is this situation?

That old man eyed him with scrutiny and then nodded, telling Zhong Qiu, “Since you chose him, don’t waver later on. Get along well. Next time, don’t leave the base without telling the family or I’ll shut down your lab, understood?”

“There won’t be a next time.” Zhong Qiu obediently replied, “The next time I go out, it will be to put the manufactured vaccine to use.”

A hint of excitement flashed in the old man’s eyes at hearing it, his voice raised, “Good, good. A real man won’t go back on his words, I will wait for your good news.” Afterwards he turned to Ye Zhizhou with a much gentler face, “Xiao Chen, grandpa will talk to you more when your observation period ends. Grandpa still has things to do, I will leave first.”

The window was closed, and Ye Zhizhou had to swallow back his prepared reply to his stomach. A bit bashful, a bit annoyed, and really wanting to beat down Zhong Qiu once.

“Grandpa really likes you.” As if he didn’t see his dissatisfaction, Zhong Qiu pulled his hand again. “Let’s go, uncle Li’s still waiting for us, let’s go back and eat.”

“Xiao Chen?” Suddenly a voice he was familiar with called nearby, Ye Zhizhou turned his head, and saw a thinned down Wei Xu. He jumped out of a bus ten metres away and ran up to Ye Zhizhou agitatedly. “Xiao Chen, when did you arrive? I thought, I thought…,”

Maybe what he imagined in his head was too horrible, his hands reached out wanting to hug Ye Zhizhou as he approached them.

Zhong Qiu’s face darkened. He stepped forward to stop his hands, standing in front of Ye Zhizhou’s body. His eyes started to turn yellowish.

“Don’t touch him!”

“You calm down a bit.” This is still at the observation area, alright? Ye Zhizhou reached out and pulled on his arm. He turned to Wei Xu and replied with a laugh, “I just arrived at noon. What about you brother Wei? When did you arrive?”

Wei Xu glanced at his hand on Zhong Qiu’s arm and frowned, “Xiao Chen, this man is…”

“My boyfriend.” Ye Zhizhou pulled Zhong Qiu’s hand to him very naturally, raising their hands for Wei Xu to see. “I have to thank brother Wei for that talk before, it made me realise that what I felt for you was dependance on an older brother. Now I’ve found someone I truly like. I’ll introduce you, this is Zhong Qiu, a researcher in B city base. Zhong Qiu, this is brother Wei, a good brother I grew up with. He had always looked after me.”

Zhong Qiu was pleased by his introduction. His whole demeanour warmed and he extended a hand to Wei Xu. “Hello, thanks for your care for Xiao Chen before, from now own I will look after him well.” So you, his ‘good brother’, can get lost now.

Wei Xu couldn’t describe his feelings right now. He felt a little bit left behind and also a tad bitter. He took Zhong Qiu’s extended hand and forced a smile on his face, saying back, “Xiao Chen’s quite unruly, you need to take more care.”

“Xiao Chen is very good.” Zhong Qiu took back his hand and smilingly refuted his words.

Wei Xu’s face stiffened.

Seeing this Ye Zhizhou hastily put himself between the two men. He asked Wei Xu to come see Liu Tao where the fleet of cars were parked and Wei Xu nodded his agreement. He walked with Ye Zhizhou to the fleet as Zhong Qiu looked on with a bone-chilling stare.

Liu Tao was very excited to meet Wei Xu, he pulled him close and started talking nonstop although Wei Xu was absent-minded. From time to time his line of sight would settle on Ye Zhizhou and Zhong Qiu on the side. Ye Zhizhou noticed this and raised a brow, he deliberately asked, “Brother Wei, why don’t I see Xu Yi with you? Haven’t you always looked after him? Are you the only one who came to B city?”

Wei Xu’s expression went rigid. He said in a low voice, his hands unconsciously clenched, “I’m not alone, there’s also Fang Yunqi. When we arrived he coincidentally met someone from his hometown and left with that friend to ask about his parents. As for Xu Yi….. No need to talk about those withdifferent paths, also, he doesn’t need me to take care of him.”

“Xiao Chen.” Liu Tao quickly indicated to Ye Zhizhou with his eyes, and changed the topic, “Xiao Xu, does your dad and mom know you’re here?”

Ye Zhizhou saw that the flow of conversation has changed and regretfully closed his mouth. He closed the system’s information, it seems like this remaining 30% won’t drop so easily, ah…… As for Fang Yunqi…, who was that?

After 24 hours in the observation area the fleet of cars entered the second gate and prepared to settle down. Liu Tao and the rest of Annan base’s leaders were invited to attend a meeting again while Wei Xu was received by his family. Yan Zheng left to look for comrades from his old unit, Liang Ping went searching for the teacher he was indebted to. Zhong Qiu was the only one remaining by Ye Zhizhou’s side.

Just as they were moving their things into the assigned room Lao Bo rushed in, head full of sweat, saying urgently, “Leader, you’re finally back! The third test subject who was doing well before abruptly got worse, something’s wrong but no one can handle the situation!”

Zhong Qiu’s expression changed. He dropped the stuff he was putting away and instantly followed Lao Bo out, but stopped after one step. He turned back to Ye Zhizhou, carried him in one swoop, then opened the window and jumped down.

“Leader what are you doing!?” Lao Bo was so startled his heart would explode. Ye Zhizhou whose body was free falling was also terribly scared, his spiritual force unconsciously whirled out of him and made into a cushion for their bodies.

“Don’t be scared.” Zhong Qiu patted him and suddenly gentle bouts of wind surged in from all around them, steadily supported their fall. He looked up to Lao Bo who had stretched himself out of the window and shouted, “I’ll meet you at the lab!”

They landed safely. Zhong Qiu jumped up and down with the wind while still holding Ye Zhizhou. Lao Bo followed their departure with his eyes, jealous and also bitter, “Abilities are so amazing, ah… If you show off too much you’ll fall out of love faster!”

Ye Zhizhou who was forced on a roller coaster ride felt lightheaded. Zhong Qiu carried him into a research institute at the third gate. Ye Zhizhou’s vision went a little dimmer. The reason why he gave up the extremely popular mecha system before — and chose the more unorthodox shut-in genetic research major — was because he couldn’t stand the high intensity drills, moreover, operating the mecha himself was too muchfor him. He absolutely didn’t expect that after so long he would actually get to experience the swift movements similar to piloting a mecha in this ancient world.

After they passed the fourth or fifth complicated checkpoint of the lab, Zhong Qiu place him on a lounge sofa and stroked his hair, he frowned, “Are you feeling unwell?”

“A little unwell.” He took out a calming pill and swallowed it down, finally feeling well again. He waved him off, “Go get your things done. Leave someone here to let me know where I can put the equipment, the antivirus is important.”

Zhong Qiu stroke his hair again then leaned down to kiss him once before he turned to leave.

An attractive young woman poked out her head from a door. She gave him a shy smile and murmured, “Um… I’m Bao Bao. You can call out to me for anything. I’m just at the small office across from you. And, uh, that equipment……”

“The equipment’s with me.” He got up at once and said politely, “Where should I put the equipment? Can you please lead me there?”

“No, no need to be polite.” Bao Bao blushed red and waved her hand. She moved back and made a gesture for him to come with her. “A space in lab one had been vacated, please follow me.”

The machine was large. After putting it down safely they still needed to carefully do the installation and debugging before it can be properly used. Ye Zhizhou saw that they busied themselves and quietly withdrew. He walked back to the lounge he was in before. That third test subject Lao Bo mentioned was also in the original plot. It was precisely by this unexpected variation in the test subject that Zhong Qiu found out the major issue with the unfinished antivirus. He had a breakthrough, thus, when he discovered the powerful active elements in the spiritual spring it was as if he hit the jackpot, he abducted protagonist who refused to provide his spring to the research.

Recalling this part of the plot his brows furrowed. He felt a little puzzled, the protagonist was clearly very generous when using his spring to save the male leads, why would he in turn be so stingy, not even giving one drop when the research institute discussed with him? The spring was clearly abundant, and it was not alive, it wouldn’t be lost forever if he gave them some…

Is there anything weird in the spring?

Thinking of this he stopped dead on his tracks. He flipped open the system’s data till he got to the part where the male leads killed Zhong Qiu. After Wei Xu killed Zhong Qiu with an ice sword there was a strange move on the protagonist’s part. He took Zhong Qiu and the rest of the test subjects in the institute into his space, his high-sounding reason was that he couldn’t let the rotting zombie remains continue to pollute the institute with its virus.. This act was in perfect agreement with his ‘kindhearted and attentive’ setting. However the later text never did mention him taking out the remains to dispose of them……

Ye Zhizhou’s hand spasmed as he flipped through the data pages. His expression twisted……

The protagonist…, it can’t be……