As for the disappearance of those little punks who bullied Xia Ji, Chu You didn’t really care.
If those girls went missing for some other reason, then it was up to the Law Enforcement Bureau to find them.
If their disappearance was related to Chen Xinyu, or rather, the professor behind Chen Xinyu, then whether they were found or not really didn’t matter much anymore.
After several confrontations with Chen Xinyu and Lu Ran, Chu You had already sketched a vague outline in her mind of the professor’s aberration experiments.
He was trying to forcibly fuse the power of the Oracle with the traits of the Aberrants, creating an existence that was no longer human, yet not completely belonging to the Aberrants… a brand-new kind of being.
In other words.
The professor wanted to create a new race!
At present, it seemed his experiments had achieved some degree of success.
At the very least, both Chen Xinyu and Lu Ran, though their bodies had partially mutated, were still just barely able to maintain a clear mind, even if their personalities had changed.
But the questions that followed hung over her mind like a dark cloud.
Was it possible to restrain this process of aberration?
If not, after Chen Xinyu and Lu Ran completed their transformation, would their humanity be completely devoured?
“Slurp~”
Just as Chu You was in the midst of this mental storm, the sound of noodles being slurped suddenly rang in her ears.
She instinctively turned her head.
Lin Mo, holding a paper bowl and slurping noodles, looked particularly dazed.
With his cheeks puffed out, he looked strangely like a groundhog. Seeing this, Chu You couldn’t help but smile.
“Slow down,” she said, handing Lin Mo a tissue. “No one’s fighting you for it.”
Lin Mo took the tissue, and looking at the gentle smile on Chu You’s face, was momentarily stunned.
He hurriedly swallowed his noodles, then asked somewhat uncertainly, “…Do I look funny when I eat?”
Chu You shook her head, the smile in her eyes deepening.
“No, I just suddenly thought of something interesting.”
She paused, glancing at the door—Gu Qiancheng had gone out to buy some cola and hadn’t come back yet.
Then, Chu You drew back her gaze, lowered her voice, and with a hint of curiosity asked, “By the way, I was unconscious for so many days… the side effects of the Chameleon Serum…”
Lin Mo’s expression didn’t change, though a trace of emotion flickered quickly in his eyes.
He used the tissue Chu You handed him to wipe his mouth and replied in a calm and natural tone, “Maybe it was because your origin power erupted completely, so the serum became ineffective… And since you were unconscious the whole time, there weren’t any obvious side effects.”
After speaking, he casually balled up the tissue and tossed it into the trash bin at the end of the bed with perfect accuracy.
Then he picked up the bowl again and resumed eating, his actions smooth and natural, as if what he had just said was the most ordinary thing in the world.
Hearing this explanation, the stone weighing on Chu You’s heart finally dropped.
She let out a gentle breath—despite all her prior mental preparation, whenever she thought about the awkward scenes that might have resulted from the serum’s side effects, she still felt her toes curl in embarrassment.
Thank goodness…
This time, the disaster had turned into a blessing in disguise; being gravely injured and comatose had actually helped her avoid a catastrophe.
“You should return the other serums when you get a chance,” Chu You lay back on the bed, not forgetting to remind him, “Anyway, I won’t be needing them anymore.”
“Mm-hmm!”
Lin Mo acted like someone who’d been starved in a previous life, burying his head in the noodles without so much as glancing at Chu You.
His behavior was a bit unusual, but Chu You had just awakened from her coma, and her thoughts were still a bit fuzzy, so she didn’t notice this subtle oddity.
Before long, Lin Mo finished off the last bite of his noodles.
At that moment, the ward door clicked open.
Gu Qiancheng walked in carrying a pack of colas, glancing back and forth between the two of them.
“Let me see—after these ten-odd minutes I was gone, did you lovebirds get up to anything bad behind my back~?”
Without thinking, Chu You grabbed the tissue box from the table and tossed it at him.
Gu Qiancheng caught it steadily and theatrically patted his chest.
“So fierce? Looks like you’ve recovered well—you even have the strength to hit people now.”
“I always have energy for smacking a jerk!” Chu You rolled her eyes at him in exasperation.
“That was a great insult~” Gu Qiancheng grinned mischievously and edged closer, as if suddenly remembering something, then smirked, “Besides, I wasn’t wrong to call you two lovebirds, was I? The rice is already cooked—what’s there to be embarrassed about?”
“What do you mean, the rice is already cooked?”
Chu You’s heart skipped a beat, a sense of foreboding creeping in.
She quickly demanded, “Explain yourself!”
She was so intent on questioning Gu Qiancheng that she failed to notice Lin Mo’s body stiffen ever so slightly at Gu Qiancheng’s words.
Gu Qiancheng glanced at Lin Mo and saw him glaring threateningly, which only made Gu Qiancheng laugh even harder.
He went on, “A few nights ago, in the middle of the night, you were unconscious, but suddenly you clung to Lin Mo’s arm and wouldn’t let go. Your face was red as a monkey’s butt, and you just kept squirming around. Tsk tsk…”
Chu You instinctively turned her head to look at Lin Mo, her face pale, eyes full of shock and inquiry.
Lin Mo looked away, clearly guilty, not daring to meet her gaze.
It’s over, it’s all over!
Chu You slowly closed her eyes and lay down, pulling the covers over her head.
Her brain raced as she tried to guess what Lin Mo might have done to her.
Seeing her like this, Lin Mo turned to glare fiercely at Gu Qiancheng, warning him with his eyes not to continue.
But who was Gu Qiancheng?
Selling swords and drinking cola were the two things he could never live without.
Faced with Lin Mo’s threatening look, Gu Qiancheng simply lifted his chin in defiance and became even more animated.
“I saw that and thought, this won’t do!”
“It was the middle of the night, so I quickly tapped into my network and got in touch with the old professor who designed that serum.”
“Guess what he said?”
He deliberately paused, enjoying the sight of Chu You hiding under the covers like an ostrich and Lin Mo’s increasingly gloomy face, before finally revealing the answer, “The professor said that the simplest and most direct way to alleviate the side effects of this experimental serum is to satisfy the recipient’s desire at the time—kisses, hugs, cuddles, anything goes. Of course, if you can reach full harmonious unity, that’s best…”
As his words faded, a deathly silence fell over the ward.
Lin Mo finally couldn’t take it anymore.
He shot to his feet and reached out to grab Gu Qiancheng.
“Come outside for a moment, I have something to say to you…”
“Don’t touch me,” Gu Qiancheng took half a step back, his expression exaggerated.
“You opportunist, don’t think you can shut me up!”
“Enough, quit it…” No one knew when, but Chu You had stuck her head out from under the covers again, her expression calm, as if she were wearing a mask devoid of emotion.
She glanced at Lin Mo, then shifted her gaze to Gu Qiancheng, her tone flat and unruffled as she asked, “Go on. And then?”
At her words, Gu Qiancheng raised his brows, glancing between Lin Mo and Chu You with a look full of mischief.
“And then? Then Lin Mo, like he’d had his tail stepped on, forced me out of the ward~”.
He spread his hands, his grin practically begging for a punch.
“As for what he did to help you relieve the side effects after I left, and exactly how far it went… well, that I can’t say~”.
As soon as the words fell, it was as if the entire ward froze over.
Chu You didn’t speak.
She simply, slowly—very slowly—turned her head to look at Lin Mo, who was stiff as a statue.
Lin Mo pressed his lips together and, with some difficulty, raised his head to look at Chu You, his gaze dodging.
“I can explain…”