“Your sister is… Fang Mingyue?” Shen Ge asked tentatively, his expression somewhat strange.
Fang Yaori said excitedly, “Of course, who else would I have? Brother-in-law, what are you doing here? A couple of days ago, my sister said you were in the capital, and I was going to show you around. Just today… ahem, brother-in-law, please don’t tell my sister about what happened today. If she finds out, she’ll definitely break my…”
“Stop!”
Seeing Fang Yaori babbling on and on, even saying more and more outlandish things, Shen Ge quickly interrupted him. “First, your sister and I are just colleagues, at best comrades who’ve been through life-and-death situations together. Second, does Fang Mingyue know about that thing around your neck?”
“No, my sister doesn’t know. It’s classified… Hey, you three, put your clothes on and get out. You’re not needed here anymore.” Fang Yaori said, waving toward the three women huddled at the foot of the bed.
The three women felt as if they’d been granted amnesty. They were originally there to attend to Fang Yaori for money and power. With all this talk of anomalies and anomaly investigators, they were genuinely afraid that if they kept listening, they’d be silenced. They quickly grabbed the clothes on the floor, not caring whose they were, pulling them on as they ran out.
After the women left, Shen Ge leaned against the door with his arms crossed, giving off the impression that if Fang Yaori didn’t provide a reasonable explanation, he’d be treated as some kind of freak.
“Sister’s bro…”
Just as Fang Yaori started to speak, he met Shen Ge’s icy gaze and quickly swallowed the last word. He continued, “Although our Fang family has some sway in the military, I… well, my reputation wasn’t great when I was young. Plus, my grades in various subjects weren’t up to standard, so I was rejected by the anomaly investigators.”
“But now that anomalies are rampant, not being an anomaly investigator would disgrace the Fang family name. My family thought, since my sister just got promoted to team leader, they’d have me find a job in the Second Special Strategy Department to bide my time, waiting for a future opportunity… to become an anomaly combatant or investigator.”
“But the Second Special Strategy Department didn’t seem to have any idle positions, and my sister wasn’t willing to pull strings for me. Luckily, although I was reckless before, I still have some connections. I happened to run into an old acquaintance in the Research Department. Seeing that I wanted to join, he asked his mentor to find me a job as an assistant.”
“Later, when the Research Department was developing a new anomaly antibody, there was an experimental accident. I got caught up in it and was forced to be injected with a freak sample, and then I ended up like this.” Fang Yaori said, pointing to the blood-red tumor on his neck and smiling awkwardly.
“Because this freak research is the top secret of the Second Special Strategy Department, I have to keep it confidential. I can’t even tell my sister, let alone my parents. But they promised me that once the research is successful, I’ll be immediately promoted to deputy team leader.”
“Oh, right, the research has entered the second phase. They say the third phase means the ‘antibody’ has been successfully developed!”
Upon hearing this, Shen Ge frowned slightly. He stared at Fang Yaori without speaking, as if scrutinizing the truth of his words. “Classified? You can’t even tell your family, but you’re telling me?”
“Well… since this thing was seen by my sis… by you, I had to give a satisfactory explanation. If I didn’t, you’d definitely tell my sister. Then I’d not only be held accountable, but my family wouldn’t let me off easy either.” Fang Yaori said with a pitiful expression.
Shen Ge snorted, “Are you stupid? Team leader-level positions not only require a nomination list from department heads, but also multiple assessments. Since when does an antibody researcher have that kind of authority? You underwent a live experiment. If you die, they’ll say you were infiltrated by a freak organization. If you succeed… Hah, do you really think you’ll still be alive if you succeed?”
“Huh?” Fang Yaori was completely stunned.
Shen Ge still wasn’t sure whether Fang Yaori was acting or genuinely this ridiculously naive, but it didn’t matter. Whether he was acting or not, Shen Ge could use this to follow the trail and investigate further.
“First, the freak sample you received uses abilities commonly associated with the Twelve Zodiacs. In other words, that experimental accident probably wasn’t an accident at all, but premeditated. Whether this conspiracy is targeting your Fang family or the entire Special Strategy Department, it’s definitely connected to the Twelve Zodiacs.”
“Second, the Special Strategy Department strictly prohibits live human experiments. Do you really think the Second Special Strategy Department has some top-secret research that can ignore headquarters’ regulations?”
“Finally, even your sister couldn’t find a way to get a useless guy like you into the Second Special Strategy Department. Yet you, through some fair-weather friend, managed to get into the top-secret Special Strategy Department? Use your brain… What are they after? You’re an easy target, that’s what.”
“…” Fang Yaori looked at Shen Ge, on the verge of tears. He felt like he was facing his sister again, being dismissed as completely worthless.
“Brother-in-law, I’m not that bad…”
Fang Yaori was cut off mid-sentence by Shen Ge’s glare and quickly changed his address: “Investigator Shen, I’m not as bad as you say, am I? Besides, if what you’re saying is true, what exactly are they trying to accomplish by going through all this trouble? And after I received the antibody research, I feel much stronger, incredibly powerful, and full of endless energy!”
“Oh?” Shen Ge raised an eyebrow. The next second, he was standing in front of Fang Yaori, grabbing him by the neck and lifting him off the ground.
Fang Yaori painfully pried at Shen Ge’s fingers, only to find them as immovable as steel. He wanted to beg for mercy but couldn’t even make a sound.
In just a few seconds, Fang Yaori’s eyes rolled back. Just as he was about to suffocate, Shen Ge threw him onto the bed and let him go.
Too stupid, too weak. Someone like this was unlikely to be from the Twelve Zodiacs. Besides, if he really were from the Twelve Zodiacs, he would have fought back in that situation instead of nearly dying.
However, Shen Ge was also curious. If someone like this was being used as a pawn by the Twelve Zodiacs, what was their goal? What were they plotting?
“Investigator Shen, I was… telling… the truth.” Fang Yaori clutched his throat, coughing painfully, and spoke with difficulty.
Shen Ge stared at him coldly. “I stayed at the Second Special Strategy Department a couple of days ago. Your sister also gave me a tour of the Research Department. I saw that every department has clear research objectives. Who’s in charge of the classified experiment you mentioned?”
“Supervisor Chen. Supervisor Chen is in charge. And the Research Department isn’t at the Second Special Strategy Department; it’s over by the military base.” Fang Yaori replied.
“Supervisor Chen? What does he look like?” Shen Ge asked.
Fang Yaori briefly described Supervisor Chen’s appearance, making him sound like an ordinary middle-aged man. But for some reason, Shen Ge gradually began to superimpose the image of this Supervisor Chen onto an old acquaintance of his.
His surname is Chen, and he’s involved in so-called “antibody research.” Could it be such a coincidence?
Shen Ge narrowed his eyes. After a moment’s thought, he made up his mind and said to Fang Yaori, “Take me to the Research Department.”
“Okay!” Fang Yaori agreed without a moment’s hesitation. His readiness was so swift that Shen Ge even wondered if the other party had set a trap for him.
What Shen Ge didn’t know was that ever since Fang Mingyue became his admirer, she had been highly promoting Shen Ge at home. She was also the first to call him the number one anomaly investigator in all of China.
Of course, Fang Mingyue might simply admire and respect Shen Ge’s abilities, but to her family and Fang Yaori, it obviously sounded like something more.
Moreover, admiring the strong is normal. Fang Mingyue constantly instilled Shen Ge’s prowess into Fang Yaori day after day. Over time, this naturally led to the “brother-in-law” misunderstanding.
The main thing Fang Mingyue emphasized to Fang Yaori was that several times when she encountered anomalous incidents and found herself trapped in anomaly disasters, Shen Ge had helped her through the difficulties. Cooperating with Shen Ge required following just two words—
Obey.
As long as you follow Shen Ge’s commands, you can escape unscathed, even from a nation-level anomaly disaster like the one on Cherry Blossom Island.
Fang Yaorui had always admired his sister since childhood. What she said carried more weight than what his parents said. So, when Shen Ge asked him to go to the Research Department now, he agreed almost without thinking.
The two drove away from the hotel. It was only eight in the evening, but the sky was already completely dark. The road to the military base felt oppressively gloomy. There were very few vehicles along the way, and pedestrians were even harder to spot.
Shen Ge felt something was off, but Fang Yaori seemed used to it. “Supervisor Chen said it was an arrangement from headquarters. Because the research is so important, and it involves freak samples, they were worried about experimental accidents affecting innocent people. So, they used the military base’s jurisdiction to establish this secret research institute.”
“Master, anomalous energy detected ahead.” Xiao Qi condensed a bit of rotting blood near Shen Ge’s earlobe, using it as an “earpiece” to relay information.
“Stop the car,” Shen Ge said.
Although Fang Yaori didn’t understand what Shen Ge wanted to do, he still obeyed and pulled the car over to the side of the road. “Investigator Shen, what’s wrong?”
Shen Ge didn’t answer. Instead, he got out of the car and, following Xiao Qi’s prompts, quietly moved toward the checkpoint ahead.
Fang Yaori quickly got out and followed. He didn’t know what Shen Ge was planning, but his sister had said not to question any of Shen Ge’s decisions, so he could only silently follow behind.
Shen Ge didn’t stop Fang Yaori from following. If Fang Yaori deliberately made some noise to attract the monster’s attention, it would also expose his “intentions” early on, saving Shen Ge the trouble of having to play along with him.
To his surprise, Fang Yaori simply followed quietly behind Shen Ge without any strange movements. This behavior, instead, stirred suspicion in Shen Ge’s mind.
The two approached the checkpoint only to find no one guarding it. A tent was pitched near the woods not far behind the checkpoint. Strangely, the tent was tattered, as if torn apart by some wild animal, and the bloodstains in front of the tent were still fresh, suggesting the incident had just occurred recently.
Seeing this, Fang Yaori lowered his voice and said, “Investigator Shen, this is Checkpoint T173. As far as I know, there are hundreds of checkpoints like this along this road. If something goes wrong at one, the others immediately detect the problem… This situation is clearly abnormal.”
Shen Ge glanced at Fang Yaori and was tempted to say, “No kidding. The person’s dead; of course I can see it’s abnormal.” But then he remembered that the Fang family members all seemed to be descendants of simpletons; you couldn’t communicate with them using normal logic.
Take Fang Mingyue, for instance. When he first met her, she was indeed quite exasperating. But as they got along, he found that she was single-minded. As long as you went along with her single-mindedness, she was actually quite easy to get along with.
“Aren’t you pretty smart? Your observation skills aren’t bad either. So how did you get fooled into participating in a live experiment?” Shen Ge offered a half-hearted compliment.
After being praised, Fang Yaori instantly became much more confident. He straightened his back and said, “Right, brother-in-law? I told you I’m not as bad as you said. As long as… hehe, hehe.”
The moment “brother-in-law” slipped out, Shen Ge’s expression darkened. Fang Yaori quickly gave an awkward smile and got back to the point. “Actually, I don’t have many hobbies. I just like to indulge in romantic pursuits… and then I accidentally got fooled by a fake innocent girl. She showed up at my house with a fake pregnancy belly and made a scene, and I got kicked out. I tried to seek refuge with my sister, but she almost broke my legs. So I had to turn to one of my sister’s suitors… ahem, for help. I had no prior exposure to the Special Strategy Department, and after he painted this grand picture for me, I was confused and ended up working at the Research Department.”
“I thought, since it’s a research department directly under the Second Special Strategy Department, if I could actually secure some minor official position, I could hold my head up high in front of my family.”
“Luckily, brother-in-law, ahem, Investigator Shen, you showed up. Otherwise, I’d definitely have been sold and still be counting the money for them…” Fang Yaori said with a bitter smile.
Shen Ge was at a loss for how to respond. He had initially thought that the Twelve Zodiacs sending such a naive person as Fang Yaori was a deliberate ploy to appear weak and then gradually lure him into a trap. Now it seemed that wasn’t the case at all; Fang Yaori was simply “stupid.”
However, based on what Fang Yaori had said, it was clear they wanted to use his identity as a member of the Fang family for something, or at the very least, to target Fang Mingyue.
And after Old Fang returned and established the internal investigation team, its main purpose was to root out the spies the Twelve Zodiacs had planted in the Special Strategy Department. It wasn’t surprising that they would target a member of the Fang family, especially when a fool like Fang Yaori had practically walked right into their hands, volunteering to be a “captive.”
“Ah.”
Shen Ge sighed inwardly. He estimated that when Fang Mingyue found out her brother was stupid enough to be fooled by the Twelve Zodiacs into participating in a live experiment, breaking his legs would be the least of his worries.
Just as they were talking, Xiao Qi detected the specific location of the anomalous energy, and Shen Ge also received a system notification about an anomaly appearing.
“Investigator Shen, it looks like there’s someone up ahead?” Fang Yaori heard faint rustling sounds from the small woods. Focusing his eyes, he spotted a figure moving.
Shen Ge had already locked onto the figure and determined it was likely a freak. But he didn’t act immediately. Instead, he prepared to step back behind Fang Yaori to see what he would do.
To his surprise, the moment Shen Ge took a step back, Fang Yaori shot behind him like a rocket, moving so fast that Shen Ge almost thought he was about to be ambushed.
“Investigator Shen, something’s not right. It doesn’t look human! This is a high-alert zone. If monsters are appearing here, does that mean the military base has already fallen?” Fang Yaori said, his voice trembling slightly.
Before he finished speaking, the dark figure had already staggered out of the small woods. Strictly speaking, it could no longer be considered human…
The figure still had human legs from the waist down, but from the abdomen upward, it was as if a mass of bloody, tumorous flesh enveloped its entire body. Dozens of rotting flesh tentacles protruded from its back, and it was walking toward them like some kind of octopus monster with two legs!
