RHWHEG – Chapter 78 Chaos Erupts

Seeing that Yu Qunqing didn’t respond, Tang Qianjiang tentatively tossed out some information first.

“From what I’ve observed, the relationship between those two is extremely bad. Jiang Qiwen has a one-sided crush on Yu Yanlan, but Yu Yanlan seems to have a one-sided crush on Han Shuzhu—yet Han Shuzhu spends all day hovering around Jiang Qiwen… For context: Yu Yanlan is an esper from our Ability Hall, Jiang Qiwen is an external consultant invited by the Research Center, and Han Shuzhu is a staff member at our Research Center.”

Yu Qunqing: ?

Lin Luyi leaned back. “Wow, the gossip in your shelter is this explosive? The juiciest gossip in our neighborhood is at most stuff like Yu Qunqing dating She Lulang. Ah—ow!” He clutched his head and looked around, unable to tell whether it was Yu Qunqing or She Lulang who had hit him.

Tang Qianjiang said solemnly, “I’ve got tons more gossip—all things I personally saw while slacking off on guard duty. And I’m a literature major, passed the teaching certification exam, Mandarin Level 2-A. I can absolutely tell stories vividly and lifelike. Bro, seriously, letting a weakling like me go is never a loss!”

Lin Luyi: “That actually sounds like a great deal!”

Yu Qunqing: “Your head really is full of weeds…”

Lin Luyi: “Yu Qunqing, I’ve been holding this in for a long time.”

“Hey now, big brother, that’s not right,” Tang Qianjiang immediately switched sides. “What’s wrong with having weeds in your head? Who’s mentally normal these days anyway! Once you’ve known the vastness of heaven and earth, you still pity the green of grass and trees—having plants growing in your brain in the apocalypse is such a noble thing!”

Yu Qunqing said unhurriedly, “If we take him back to our neighborhood, what gossip wouldn’t we get?”

Lin Luyi suddenly understood. “Yu Qunqing, sometimes you’re actually pretty smart.”

Tang Qianjiang: “Hero, spare my life!”

She Lulang’s eyes had already gone blank—she didn’t want to admit she was on the same team as them.

“But you said Yu Yanlan and Jiang Qiwen don’t get along…” Yu Qunqing slightly shifted his tone.

He guessed that Yu Yanlan’s lovestruck behavior in his previous life might have been influenced by the Book of Parasitism, but he wasn’t sure. His own relationship with his family was poor, and Yu Yanlan had always been the type to pick fights with everything under the sun. They rarely kept in touch, so there was no way to verify Yu Yanlan’s inner thoughts.

But in this life, he’d already beaten him up—might as well find a way to remove that influence.

“Tell me about Jiang Qiwen and Han Shuzhu,” Yu Qunqing said.

Tang Qianjiang: “I’ll tell you everything I know!”

After a round of conversation, Lin Luyi had heard some truly explosive gossip and became extremely interested, developing a good impression of Tang Qianjiang. It was time for Tang Qianjiang to change shifts, so Yu Qunqing had Lin Luyi continue to “escort” Tang Qianjiang to the dormitory area to rest. He and She Lulang went elsewhere to probe around. Yu Qunqing’s ability consumption was too great, and the system still hadn’t responded—this wasn’t a good time to make any big moves.

Seeing Yu Qunqing and She Lulang leave, Lin Luyi immediately untied Tang Qianjiang and said, “You’re free!”

“Thanks, I’m free at last,” Tang Qianjiang slumped to the ground. He could tell Lin Luyi had been nice to him because he was interested in the gossip, so he cautiously asked, “Uh, hero… does your neighborhood not have any entertainment? Want to defect to our shelter? We’re not great at much, but we can at least guarantee everyone a meal!”

Lin Luyi: “Our neighborhood has Werewolf, poker, Monopoly, audiobook clubs, reading-sharing sessions, claw machines, and other entertainment.”

Tang Qianjiang: “Wow…”

“I lost my memory after my ability evolved—just curious,” Lin Luyi said. Vines suddenly sprouted all over his body, like an octopus’s tentacles waving in midair, their shadows cast across Tang Qianjiang’s face. His voice grew low and dark. “Don’t think about anything extra. I hate shelters to the core. They never treated me like a human being.”

“Uh…” Tang Qianjiang’s face stiffened.

Lin Luyi retracted the vines. “Lead the way. How big are your shelter’s dorms?”

With a heavy heart, Tang Qianjiang led the way. Lin Luyi used his ability to avoid the patrolling ability guards. When they reached an unoccupied area, Lin Luyi suddenly asked, “You don’t seem surprised at all that the shelter did inhumane things. You knew already?”

Tang Qianjiang nodded, then shook his head. “I’ve been standing guard here all the time—I guessed some of it.”

Lin Luyi suddenly got angry. “Then why didn’t anyone stop them? Even you knew—others should’ve been able to guess too. Why do you all still trust them so much?!”

“Doesn’t that sentence kind of include a personal attack on my character?” Tang Qianjiang couldn’t help complaining, then looked at Lin Luyi with a trace of guilt.

He said, “The shelter’s AI can only supervise whether administrators violate the principle of mutual aid. The administrators set up the Research Center to supervise whether residents violate that same principle. But what truly restrains people isn’t forceful measures—it’s a shared illusion.”

Lin Luyi listened in a daze.

“The shared illusion of the Jiangbei City Shelter is this: we will all abide by the principle of mutual aid for all humanity, taking in and treating every survivor.

Some people risk everything, even their lives, for this shared illusion. Some pay lip service while acting otherwise. But no one will break this shared illusion… Jiangbei City used to have over five million people. Only twenty thousand made it to the Jiangbei City Shelter. Everyone wants to survive together, and to live here, you have to acknowledge this shared illusion.”

“This is what Dr. Chen told me. He said he created a shared illusion. People all call him a hero of humanity…” Tang Qianjiang lowered his head. “But I’ve always felt he might be doing some bad things.”

Lin Luyi opened his mouth, a fire rising in his chest—yet he felt unbearably stifled, unsure whom exactly to blame. Fate was like a blade; everyone was fish on the chopping board.

He thought back on everything he’d experienced in the neighborhood. The peaceful everyday life soothed him somewhat. He couldn’t quite explain why the neighborhood was better than the shelter—perhaps because the shadowy mastermind behind it all, Yu Qunqing (this was Yu Qunqing’s new nickname), was genuinely trustworthy and not a bad person at heart. And the neighborhood’s shared illusion—Crocodile Immortal, or Disaster Neighborhood, or whatever else—really did give the residents a lot of comfort.

“With so many uncertainties,” Lin Luyi said, “why not go find the answers yourself? Come on—we’re turning back. Let’s go see what that Dr. Chen is really doing at the Research Center!”

Tang Qianjiang felt tempted, yet panicked. “If we get discovered, I’ll be sentenced!”

Lin Luyi patted his shoulder. “Just treat it as me kidnapping you.”

…

On the other side, Yu Qunqing and She Lulang wandered near the Ability Hall. Inside the Ability Hall were special restorative agents for espers, capable of accelerating the healing of their injuries. There were some people around, so they detoured and silently infiltrated the warehouse, making not a sound.

“The shelter’s technology really is much better than ours…” Yu Qunqing said with some envy as he picked up a cold-resistant outer jacket. Whether it was cut resistance or thermal insulation, it was far superior to anything in their neighborhood.

He wanted She Lulang to change out of that piece of clothing that had frozen stiff on him. Unexpectedly, with a casual tug, he yanked off the hood that had been pulled tight around She Lulang.

And then a pair of fluffy wolf ears was revealed.

Yu Qunqing’s pupils shook!

She Lulang first covered his ears, then felt that doing so was too affected, so he put his hands down and changed into the shelter’s special cold-resistant clothing. The icy water was simply too cold—his ability automatically converted him into a “wolf” form to keep him warm.

Fortunately, the transformation wasn’t complete. There was no wolf tail for the time being…

Feeling Yu Qunqing’s gaze sticking to his wolf ears as if it had substance, a shiver ran through She Lulang’s body. He didn’t know what to do.

After a while, he stammered, “Do you… need anything else?”

In his previous life, She Lulang had only transformed into “wolf” form once. That day, he had ferociously torn apart all the clothes in their shared dorm, then driven Yu Qunqing out. Yu Qunqing later learned that it was the wolf’s nesting instinct at work—hence why the vice-captain had such a strong sense of territory.

At the time, Yu Qunqing had felt quite wronged too. If you wanted to build a nest, then build one—why tear up his spare clothes… So he went around telling everyone that She Lulang had ripped his clothes and left him with nothing decent to wear.

That day, with mouth-to-mouth-to-mouth-to-√. Their teammates all looked at him with strange expressions for a very, very long time.

“No need.” She Lulang cut off the memories. He had also thought of that sole loss of control from his previous life and suddenly felt embarrassed. He repeated, “I don’t have any other abnormalities right now.”

Yu Qunqing nodded, then subconsciously glanced at the wolf ears, an odd look flashing across his face.

She Lulang frowned and said stiffly, “I won’t allow anyone to touch my ears.”

Yu Qunqing nodded vigorously, staring straight ahead to prove his innocence. “I—never—thought—about—it!”

She Lulang’s frown deepened. The two of them heard footsteps and voices outside and immediately fell silent.

“That person’s back…” an ability user said as they walked away, chatting.

They sat on the empty floor of the warehouse, practiced hands injecting themselves with a calming agent, quietly waiting for the medicine to take effect. Their gazes met, and suddenly She Lulang shifted closer, so close that body heat seemed to pass between them.

If attacking was the heron’s instinct, and seeking warmth was the snake’s instinct, then claiming a mate was the wolf’s instinct. She Lulang moved even closer. In the cramped space, Yu Qunqing had nowhere to retreat. The only instinctive response he had was to wrap an arm around the vice-captain’s waist. This hand—it never listened, terrifyingly so. And then what was supposed to happen next? He had no idea!

She Lulang said softly, “…Except you.”

Yu Qunqing: !!!

…

Elsewhere, a clump of grass was moving around the research center. Tang Qianjiang was crawling along behind it. His physical fitness was truly terrible—after just a few steps he was already panting.

“Mr. Tang, what are you doing?” Han Shuzhu’s cold voice sounded from behind.

Tang Qianjiang immediately did three push-ups, followed by a burpee, then stood up confidently and said, “Hi! Han Shuzhu! What a coincidence seeing you here—are you slacking off too?”

“This is not a place for you to exercise,” Han Shuzhu said with contempt in his eyes. “And… ah, Dr. Chen, you’re here.”

Dr. Chen appeared behind Han Shuzhu. He looked coldly at Tang Qianjiang and barked, “Xiao Tang, stop fooling around here!”

Tang Qianjiang said, “Oh, okay, um, sorry, Dr. Chen…”

He stood there awkwardly as a stream of researchers ignored him and entered the research center. No one noticed that Tang Qianjiang was blocking an unusual clump of bushes.

Only after everyone had dispersed did he kick Lin Luyi behind him and say, “I have to know what they’re doing!”

Lin Luyi: “Charge!”

This time, Lin Luyi changed tactics—climbing over to take a look from the roof of the research center, while using vines to drag Tang Qianjiang along with great difficulty.

They saw several stretchers carrying bodies out of the lab, and their hearts sank. Imagining it and actually seeing it were completely different levels of impact.

“Is Dr. Chen really condoning—no, even participating in—the research center doing bad things?” Tang Qianjiang felt his heart shatter into pieces that could never be put back together.

“Why do you always call your grandpa Dr. Chen?” Lin Luyi asked, puzzled.

“I’m really not close to him,” Tang Qianjiang said. “Back when he was researching AI, my mom was hospitalized with cancer. He didn’t even come to see her.”

Lin Luyi didn’t press further. He pulled Tang Qianjiang closer to a pair of people talking on a balcony, and only after much effort did they finally hear clearly.

“That Jiang Qiwen is finally coming back!”

Tang Qianjiang immediately made hand signals, indicating that Jiang Qiwen was the gossip protagonist he had mentioned before. Lin Luyi nodded repeatedly.

“Did Jiang Qiwen really go into the wild himself to test that latest drug? Why would he take such a risk?”

“Isn’t it because there’s no strong experimental subject for reference? If there were an experimental subject who had already survived three phases of ‘disaster-stone flushing,’ we could extract a safer drug from the blood samples… But our shelter doesn’t have such a powerhouse. Thank goodness Jiang Qiwen came back alive, or the experimental data would’ve been impossible to collect.”

“Hasn’t he been pursuing Yu Yanlan for a long time…? Honestly, at his level, whatever he wants to do, we’d all just turn a blind eye. The fact that Jiang Qiwen’s endured this long makes him a good guy. Maybe if he endures a bit longer, our higher-ups will just package Yu Yanlan up and send him over.”

“Huh? I think Yu Yanlan actually likes Jiang Qiwen. Aren’t his coworkers all saying that? Those rejections are just foreplay.”

Lin Luyi, who was eavesdropping, made a retching gesture. Tang Qianjiang did the same.

After listening a bit more, Lin Luyi couldn’t take it anymore. He jumped down directly, tied the two researchers up like rice dumplings, stuffed rags into their mouths, and hung them from the rooftop. Tang Qianjiang nervously looked left and right. After confirming no one had seen them, he viciously kicked the two men—not for any other reason than sheer disgust.

Then Tang Qianjiang realized the two men were staring at him with their eyes wide open. Damn it—he’d been seen. He froze immediately and whispered to Lin Luyi, “Are your neighborhood’s residency requirements strict?”

Lin Luyi said, “There are even move-in promotions lately.”

Worried that things might be exposed and cause chaos, the two hurried back to Tang Qianjiang’s dorm. Tang Qianjiang slammed the door shut, panting—only to find Yu Qunqing and She Lulang already inside. His legs went weak in fright.

“We discovered a lot of secrets!” Lin Luyi reported first. “About Dr. Chen, about the research center, and about that what’s-his-name Wen what’s-his-name Lan. Oh right—what did you guys do?”

Yu Qunqing and She Lulang, who had taken a relaxed stroll thanks to revisiting familiar ground: …

Lin Luyi grew suspicious. “You didn’t seriously do nothing at all, did you?”

She Lulang coughed lightly and handed over the shelter’s special cold-resistant clothing and calming agents.

Yu Qunqing calmly shifted his gaze away.

Touching wolf ears… does that count as proper business…?

At the same time.

Inside the neighborhood.

The Fourth Ring Chamber of Commerce was shouting work chants at full throttle. It was true that the interior of the Eight-Legged Frostfall pillar was hollow, but it had many barbs. They were clearing them out to make it convenient for riding straight through in the future.

Sun Min and Dong Changxin returned to the neighborhood carrying a huge pile of wool. They finally warmed up, only to find that Yu Qunqing and the others still hadn’t returned, which made them anxious. So they went to find Li Yuebo, who was said to be the most familiar with the shelter.

“Brother Yu and the others might’ve been washed downstream,” Sun Min said.

“Don’t worry,” Li Yuebo said, wrapped in a quilt and burying his head in grinding out a paper. After a while, his pen ran out of ink. He sighed, looked up, and said, “Let’s go to the shelter to get some supplies. Pens are still very important.”

Dong Changxin asked, “How do we get there?”

“Via Crocodile River. With water, it comes back to life. Now we can row a boat over,” Li Yuebo said, pulling open a drawer. Inside were neatly arranged Tier-One Shelter passes. “And these things too. We can go in openly.”