Jiang Lian’s Expression Suddenly Became Extremely Terrifying
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Generally speaking, after a human is parasitized by a high-grade mutant species, they will enter an embryonic stage lasting 2-4 hours.
During this period, the host’s stomach will swell as if pregnant, but they will not “give birth,” nor will a mutant species burst out of their body like in movies. Instead, they will gradually be assimilated into the same kind as the high-grade mutant species.
Zhou Jiao didn’t know whether she had been parasitized by Jiang Lian or if her genes had mutated into an entirely new species. She needed time to observe herself.
However, the premise of observing herself was that she could not let the Special Bureau know about any of this.
Although the Special Bureau was officially a neutral international organization, almost everyone knew that the true entity controlling the Special Bureau was one of the world’s three corporate giants—Biotech.
Biotech had only two methods of dealing with mutant species: first, dissecting and classifying them for research; second, gathering and exterminating them.
Zhou Jiao had no desire to find out which fate awaited her.
Suppressing the sudden surge of hunger, she briefly tidied up the laboratory. Then, she turned on the control panel’s camera, concealed Jiang Lian’s presence, and calmly recounted last night’s corpse mutation accident. Finally, she carried the still-unconscious Xie Yueze into the lounge.
After completing all this, Zhou Jiao accessed the surveillance records.
For some unknown reason—perhaps because of Jiang Lian—there was no recorded footage of them from last night.
…She wasn’t sure whether that was a good thing or a bad thing.
Zhou Jiao removed her lab coat and rubber gloves, tossed them into the incinerator for destruction, and left the Special Bureau.
Outside, it was still raining—a drizzling, misty rain.
Maybe it was just her imagination, but she felt that after being dampened by the rain, the mutation in her body seemed to be accelerating.
Her fingers were becoming sticky.
Her vision had sharpened.
Her hearing had grown exceptionally acute. Across the street, two people were arguing. One person’s furious, heavy breathing was so clear that she could hear every exhale.
As she passed by a convenience store, the aroma of fast food hit her. Unable to resist, she went in and bought several meal boxes. Remembering that carbonated drinks could suppress hunger, she also grabbed a bottle of cola.
At checkout, the cashier noticed her flushed face, sweat-dampened hair, and the faint scent of disinfectant mingled with sweat. Thinking she had just come from a hospital, they kindly asked if she needed any medicine—there was hot water available in the store.
Zhou Jiao shook her head, politely declined the cashier’s kindness, took her bag, and returned to her apartment.
The moment she shut the door, the last thread of rationality in her mind snapped. She tore open the plastic lid of a meal box and started devouring its contents.
One box down—she felt no fullness at all. She didn’t even know what she was eating. Only after finishing did she realize it was braised beef rice—the cheapest synthetic food on the shelves. The so-called “beef” was lab-grown meat with an awful texture. But at this moment, she didn’t care.
Two boxes. Three boxes. Four boxes…
Zhou Jiao ate five meal boxes in one go, yet she was still hungry.
She hesitated for a moment, then twisted open the cola bottle, tilted her head back, and drank it all in one gulp.
To her surprise, it didn’t curb her hunger at all—not even a burp.
Zhou Jiao clenched the empty cola bottle. For a fleeting moment, she had the urge to eat Jiang Lian alive for putting her in this situation.
Taking a deep breath, she forced herself to suppress the intense emotions, discarded the empty meal boxes, and resisted the temptation to go downstairs and raid the convenience store. She took a quick shower, planning to use sleep as a way to fight the tormenting hunger.
“Ring—ring—ring—”
“Ring—ring—ring—”
At 2 AM, Zhou Jiao was jolted awake by the ringing of the phone.
Her sleep had been restless. She kept feeling as if something was coiling and winding around her body—cold and slimy to the touch—making her extremely uncomfortable. She wanted to open her eyes and see what it was, but her eyelids felt as if they were glued shut, impossible to lift.
Even though she had slept from morning until midnight, she still felt as exhausted as if she had pulled two consecutive all-nighters.
The phone was still ringing.
“Ring—ring—ring—”
“Ring—ring—ring—”
She didn’t have a habit of setting custom ringtones, so the incoming call ringtone was the factory default—two notes looping in repetition. The primitive and mechanical melody sounded especially sharp, rigid, and eerie in the middle of the night.
Like an octopus in a clay pot, Zhou Jiao unwillingly stretched out a hand, picked up the tablet on her bedside table, and pressed the answer button.
The tablet was connected to the apartment’s smart home system. Almost immediately, a cold, electronically synthesized voice rang out in the bedroom:
“Name: Zhou Jiao.”
“Employee ID: TSZ20492077.”
“At 3:45 AM on December 4, 2076, you and Xie Yueze—Employee ID TSX20492019—used a senior employee’s biometric key to illegally access Biotech’s internal network, downloading and leaking classified files. This act violates the ‘Economic Espionage Law’ and the ‘Trade Secret Protection Law.’ This act has severely harmed Biotech’s legitimate interests and is suspected of constituting a criminal offense of trade secret infringement… Please open the door immediately and cooperate with our investigation.”
Zhou Jiao shuddered and instantly woke up completely.
At the same time, from outside came a steady “knock, knock, knock” on the door.
A cold voice followed, “Zhou Jiao, are you there?”
Zhou Jiao ignored the question from the people outside, forcing herself to stay calm and quickly sort through the situation unfolding before her.
Xie Yueze had used a senior employee’s biometric key to access Biotech’s internal network, downloaded classified data, and leaked it—this didn’t surprise her much, because last night, there was absolutely no reason for Xie Yueze to come to the Special Bureau in the first place.
She was being treated as Xie Yueze’s accomplice—this also didn’t surprise her.
After all, the corpse mutation had caused a strong acid to spray out, corroding the cables beneath the floor, conveniently cutting off power to the laboratory for an entire night. Everything had happened at just the right moment. If she were part of Biotech, she wouldn’t believe her innocence either.
“Zhou Jiao, are you there?”
The people outside continued knocking and urging her, “Are you there? Zhou Jiao, if you open the door now, it’s not too late. If you were coerced or are innocent, the company will absolutely clear your name. But if you resist to the end and refuse to open the door, the company has the right to break in and forcibly take you in for interrogation!”
“Open the door, Zhou Jiao!”
Zhou Jiao wasn’t sure if she should open the door.
If she hadn’t swallowed Jiang Lian’s tentacle, the best course of action would, of course, be to open the door and cooperate with Biotech’s investigation.
After all, this was Yucheng—Biotech’s territory.
Here, companies like Biotech even had law enforcement authority.
But she still hadn’t figured out the changes in her body. If she cooperated with the investigation, the likely outcome would be that, while she might clear herself of espionage charges, she would “honorably” become a research specimen for the company instead.
More than a minute passed. As her hesitation dragged on, the knocking became increasingly urgent.
“Knock, knock, knock!”
“Knock, knock, knock!”
“Zhou Jiao, are you there?” The voice outside, once cold and serious, gradually turned eerie and unhinged. “Are you there? Are you there? Are you there?” (TL: I feel like I’m reading a horror book)
A nameless, overwhelming sense of eeriness washed over her. Zhou Jiao’s brow twitched, and a chill shot up from the base of her spine to the top of her head. She couldn’t suppress the shiver that ran through her body.
Why had the voice outside changed like that?
What was happening?
“…Zhou Jiao, are you there? Are you there?…”
At that moment, the knocking suddenly stopped, and the neurotic voice also fell silent.
However, two seconds later, something even more bizarre happened—scratching sounds came from the door, the sound of fingernails trying to pry open the gap beneath it.
Along with the sharp scraping of nails, the person’s voice sounded again.
They asked, “What are you eating? It smells so good…”
Hearing this, Zhou Jiao froze, and in the next moment, every hair on her body stood on end.
Because—she wasn’t eating anything at all.
The one knocking on her door wasn’t human.
But if it wasn’t a human knocking on her door… then what was it?
Was there another mutant species besides Jiang Lian—one that possessed human intelligence?
One that could even fabricate such a logically meticulous lie based on her experiences from yesterday, making it sound as if she and Xie Yueze had stolen company secrets?
The more Zhou Jiao thought about it, the colder she felt. Forcing herself to calm down, she soon dismissed this assumption.