Ch 124: TGCIR

The reason why Shen Cheng chose Dr. Wei among the many people in the research institute was certainly carefully considered.

Dr. Wei received polite treatment from Xia Jinshi, indicating that his status in the institute was not low. Being a solitary figure, Shen Cheng followed him and found that he had no children or wife. His home was empty and bare, facing cold walls and a chilly house. Although he was a prominent researcher, he faced only cold walls and a cold house when he returned home. The opportunities for exposure would be much fewer.

Furthermore, Dr. Wei’s personality was rigorous, like many researchers, he liked to live a regulated life according to a schedule. His phone and computer were filled with schedules, which was very advantageous for her impersonation.

Shen Cheng had never been inside the institute, so the map was currently completely blacked out. She didn’t know how dangerous it was inside the institute or how many cards Xia Jinshi had in his hand. Therefore, she had to prepare for long-term infiltration and acting in advance.

If she could avoid exposure, that would be the best. Sneaking in without causing any disturbances would be ideal.

One night after nine o’clock, Dr. Wei had just tiredly returned home. He opened the computer in the living room, deeply lost in thought. Suddenly, a shadow emerged from behind him, a figure he didn’t even have time to see clearly. A swift chop behind him, and then skillfully fed him a dose of 24-hour sleeping potion bought from a store.

Shen Cheng put the mask of Dr. Wei on her avatar and thoroughly searched the man’s home and his personal belongings.

Dr. Wei’s computer was clean, with almost nothing on it, but Shen Cheng noticed a marked time on it, which happened to be tomorrow afternoon, and the location was the dean’s office.

Oh my, he had an appointment with Xia Jinshi tomorrow.

Seeing this, Shen Cheng’s heart tightened. She would be facing the big boss on the first day, wasn’t that a disaster?

What did Dr. Wei want to say to Xia Jinshi?

She searched the computer again but found no further description of this time.

Shen Cheng frowned and looked around the room. The time on the computer was marked in red, indicating that Dr. Wei thought this meeting was very important. She suspected that he had already prepared or arranged something with Xia Jinshi beforehand. If that was the case, going to see Xia Jinshi without knowing anything about it might lead to a big problem.

Since there was no information on the computer, what about other places in the house or on his phone?

Shen Cheng searched the house.

Dr. Wei’s house was extremely simple, but in his desk drawer, Shen Cheng found a photo frame with a hidden compartment.

She picked it up and took a look. It was a family photo.

In the photo, a man was hugging a woman and a daughter, and they all had slight smiles, looking very happy.

But in the wardrobe of this house, there were only a few men’s clothes. From the decoration to the layout, it all revealed the loneliness of a solitary person.

Shen Cheng examined the four white walls. The extremely simple decoration indicated that the house was probably built after the apocalypse. In that case, was this family dead? Why weren’t they with Dr. Wei in the J City base? Were they dead?

Being able to carry a family photo with him indicated that Dr. Wei still cared about his former happy life. Such a person, although usually silent, probably still had one or two minutes of tenderness deep down.

Early the next morning, Shen Cheng directed her avatar to swipe Dr. Wei’s card and entered the scientific institute.

At first, she was indeed a little nervous and afraid that her disguise would be exposed. However, upon entering the map of the institute, she found that her worries seemed somewhat unnecessary. For the employees who were exploited by the unscrupulous bosses from the moment they entered, and who were like living dead, it was almost a luxury to expend energy to care about whether others were disguised. Most of the people working here probably chose it because it was a rare high-benefit and high-security organization in the apocalypse, facing the highly exploited 997, it was almost as if there was no protest at all.

Translated on ho lo lo novels dot com.

At this moment, it was just a little after 8 in the morning when Shen Cheng walked in, and some researchers were already greeting her with unkempt appearances. Many of them showed debuffs like unkempt facial hair and not having cut their hair in a month, looking like they hadn’t gone home to sleep at all.

Fortunately, Dr. Wei held a relatively high position in the research institute and was not young. He didn’t hang out with others, so no one came to Shen Cheng to converse.

As Shen Cheng walked through the gate, she encountered another problem: Dr. Wei’s office was on the 20th floor.

She stared at the elevator display as it steadily climbed from the 20th floor, sinking into a chaotic despair. She hoped she wouldn’t give herself away just by pressing the elevator button.

Fortunately, her absent-minded behavior in front of the elevator didn’t seem to attract the attention of the people behind her. It might also be because there were too many strange people in the institute who would start daydreaming as they walked, entering their own world. Everyone was used to it.

However, a person behind her seemed to recognize her and walked over with a smile. “Dr. Wei, good morning,” he said.

Shen Cheng mumbled a vague response.

“Doctor, what’s wrong with you?” The man glanced at her deliberately disheveled and exhausted face, suddenly realizing, “Are you sick?”

Shen Cheng pointed to her vocal cords. Of course, she dared not speak. She was using a face mask, not a voice mask. Without professional voice training, she didn’t dare to make any sound casually.

The younger man leaned in a bit closer, asking in a conspiratorial tone, “Are you not interested in joining the new project? It’s strange. Before, we could sign up for these projects ourselves, but suddenly it became designated. I haven’t finished my current project yet. This is simply…” He muttered under his breath, looking around surreptitiously, lowering his voice. It looked like he was up to something.

If Shen Cheng had to say, her face practically screamed “suspicious.”

She listened attentively and could glean from the man’s complaints that the institute had initiated a new project, compelling some people to participate. Both this man and Dr. Wei were among those selected, and this man didn’t want to participate, while Dr. Wei’s attitude was unknown.

Could this project be related to the new zombies created by the Spiritual Spring Water?

As she listened intently, the man had already entered the elevator. Shen Cheng had a sudden realization and slowly followed him into the elevator. Sure enough, the man pressed the 16th floor first. Seeing Shen Cheng lowering her head and not moving, he hesitated for a moment and then casually pressed the 19th floor, apparently helping her out.

Was it the 16th or the 19th?

As the elevator descended to the 14th floor, Shen Cheng’s heart skipped a beat heavily. She stared intently at the screen, barely seeing that there were only 20 floors in total, with the basement being the lowest.

“Ding.” The elevator doors opened.

The young man stepped out of the elevator slowly, feeling a bit suspicious about Dr. Wei’s strange reaction today. He was one of the oldest members in the institute, and usually, when they younger ones talked to him about new projects like this, he would offer some comforting words based on his experience and even try to help them solve their problems.

He seemed strict and aloof, but he was actually a kind-hearted person.

But today, perhaps due to heavy thoughts or illness, he didn’t react much at all, not even offering any comfort.

As he pondered in his mind, he quickly forgot about this small doubt.

Shen Cheng breathed a sigh of relief as she watched the elevator doors close. She had guessed correctly.

Dr. Wei’s office was indeed on the 19th floor.

In places like this underground scientific research facility, according to reason, the lower floors should be safer. After all, there was nothing at the bottom of the earth, while the surface might face disturbances and troubles.

So, the more important the figure, the lower the floor they should be on.

And judging by the tone and content of the conversation with the man just now, it’s evident that Dr. Wei’s position is more important than his. In this scenario, his floor should indeed be the 19th.

“Ding.” The elevator stopped at the 19th floor.

The doors opened slowly.

Shen Cheng stepped out of the elevator.

There were only two rooms on the 19th floor, symmetrical on both sides. Peering through the transparent glass into the room on the right, Shen Cheng couldn’t help but gasp in shock as she looked at her phone screen. The room was densely packed with various shapes of zombies, all staring with eyes wide open in the formaldehyde, looking almost alive at first glance.

One zombie had a sapling growing out of its head, looking as if a tree had been grafted onto its flesh.

The tree swayed slowly in the solution, perhaps sensing the arrival of Dr. Wei. Its movements suddenly became enchanting, even starting to gently tap against the glass, trying to catch her attention.

Shen Cheng stood in front of the tree. At the top of the tree were small white spherical bodies resembling seeds, which seemed oddly familiar.

She searched her memory and suddenly remembered. Isn’t this the same kind of plant that produces edible fruits she saw when she took cub out for the first time?

Dr. Wei had planted another one here.

But this one seemed much less aggressive than before. At the moment, it was gently tapping the glass, almost resembling a dog trying to please its owner, lacking the ferocity of wanting to eat people.

Shen Cheng frowned. She tapped on the glass jar and, sure enough, the attributes displayed on top showed:

Improved carnivorous plant, I Love Eating Zombies No. 3. Note: What are you looking at? Haven’t seen a plant that loves eating zombie meat and produces food? Keep looking, but you won’t get any.

“Okay, fine.” Looking at this note, it seems the game’s style is getting more and more cheeky, she thought.

The roots of this plant were deeply embedded in the zombie’s head. She took a closer look and saw that the roots were even lined with serrated teeth. Even as it lively tapped the glass, its teeth were gradually eroding the zombie’s flesh, making it far from cute. Instead, it seemed quite ferocious.

Shen Cheng felt a little regretful now for being so rough with Dr. Wei earlier. What she couldn’t understand more was the significance of this plant if it really only ate zombies. Its potential implications for human society, if promoted, were enormous. After all, the only valuable thing on zombies right now is the crystal nucleus that allows esper users to advance, but the rest of the dirty stuff is just burnt away, and if not handled properly, it could even spread disease.

When Li Weilan first encountered a mutated plant, it was not picky, eating both humans and zombies. Relatively speaking, it seemed to prefer humans a little more. In that context, Li Weilan chose to get rid of that plant, and Shen Cheng agreed at the time.

But this serrated plant was different.

It clearly stated that it loved eating zombies, making it an upgraded version of the previous plant.

Shen Cheng glanced at it silently, not daring to communicate directly with herself through the plant. After all, there were too many odd people in the institute. She was afraid that if she did too much, it might expose her, and she would regret it later.

But seeing this plant, Shen Cheng could guess what Dr. Wei really wanted to talk to Xia Jinshi about today.

If he was indeed as she suspected, a stubborn old man with an unyielding conscience who had been persisting in his research direction, what kind of behavior would he exhibit on the eve of being forcibly transferred away from his work direction? It seemed quite easy to deduce.

The calm she saw was just the calm before the storm.

This plant was constantly absorbing the flesh and blood of the zombies, growing little by little, but Shen Cheng noticed that its size still looked like it had just sprouted recently. It seemed that Dr. Wei’s overtime work was more likely aimed at nurturing it to maturity before he was forcibly transferred from this project, so that the time he had spent before wouldn’t be wasted.

What could she do for him?

Initially, she had only used Dr. Wei’s identity to save Fu Yanzhou, but Shen Cheng had to admit, upon seeing this plant called “I Love Eating Zombies No. 3,” that her original intention of not causing trouble was now itching to act.

Since she was going to cause trouble, why not go big before meeting Xia Jinshi today?

Shen Cheng glanced at the time. There were four hours left until she met Xia Jinshi.

She opened her inventory and bought about seventeen or eighteen of them.

The time for Xia Jinshi’s meeting had arrived.

Right on time, the owner of the research institute stepped into Dr. Wei’s office.

His gaze paused for a moment on the zombie with the plant growing out of its head, and a slight smile appeared at the corner of his mouth. He called out to the man standing silently in front of the computer with his back to him, “Dr. Wei.”

Shen Cheng had to admit, Xia Jinshi was extremely polite to Dr. Wei at this moment.

Although he wore gold-rimmed glasses, his thoughts were hidden behind the lenses, making it impossible to see his true intentions at a glance.

He slowly stood up from beside the desk.

Xia Jinshi watched his movements, gently pushed up his glasses on his nose, and patiently waited for him to speak. For someone capable, he didn’t spare his time.

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