Chapter 99
A pile of papers scattered on the floor. Li Yi frowned, turning to see Yi Xingshui cursing loudly. “What? Shouldn’t that scumbag be rotting in prison for life?”
Before her voice fell, the call on the other end cut off.
“Hello?” She stood up alertly and said to Li Yi, “Contact the research institute. I’ll find Senior Brother Lu. It seems Gu Lanzhu has broken out of prison and gone to the Seventh District!”
After all these years, she was all too familiar with Gu Lanzhu’s style. eliminating the biggest threat was a prerequisite for him to inevitably secure his prey. If he had already found Shu Ci, he must have certainly cut off any possibility of Shu Ci contacting Lu Wanqing.
Seventh District Ice Sculpture Park.
Shu Ci’s reflection appeared in those familiar red pupils, accompanied by an arrogant smile. In the next second, an invisible white light flashed through the air, shattering Shu Ci’s phone.
Shu Ci alertly released a wisp of pheromones, circling it around him as a defense.
He cautiously controlled its range and concentration to avoid affecting passersby.
“Long time no see, my Little Jasmine.” Gu Lanzhu kept both hands in his pockets, walking over slowly. “It seems this time you are the true Mr. Jasmine.”
Shu Ci’s face darkened.
At this moment, he no longer held any fear or lingering dread toward Gu Lanzhu, and his pheromone abilities were no longer inferior to the other’s. Yet, that strike against his phone still caught him off guard.
That wasn’t something pheromone mimicry could achieve!
There was no scent of Gu Lanzhu’s pheromones in the air, nor any change in energy fluctuations. On the contrary, at the moment of impact, he smelled another dangerous aura in the air.
“How did you… get out?” Shu Ci silently gripped the selfie stick in his hand.
The recording hadn’t been turned off. If this device was lucky enough to avoid destruction by Gu Lanzhu, it would upload the existing data to the cloud the moment the recording ended or the battery died.
Blocked by Gu Lanzhu now, he couldn’t communicate with Lu Wanqing.
This device was his last hope.
“Oh, for that, I have to thank the young master of the Bai family,” Gu Lanzhu said nonchalantly. “If he hadn’t come to visit and provoked me with the lie about our 100% match rate, I wouldn’t have been able to escape.”
What did that mean?
Before Shu Ci had time to think, he noticed anomalies in the surroundings. Water was slowly seeping out of the snowy ground beneath his feet; the height of the soft snow around his footprints was decreasing, and the ice sculpture exhibition in the distance was melting at a speed visible to the naked eye.
The temperature was changing drastically!
“Mommy, I’m so hot.”
“What’s going on? Is today’s weather forecast inaccurate?”
Rustling sounds from the surroundings reached Shu Ci’s ears. He immediately looked at Gu Lanzhu, who had walked to within a meter of him, brim pulled low, lips curled up.
“What did you do?!” Shu Ci demanded in a lowered voice.
At the same time, he decisively mimicked a gun with his pheromones, aiming it at Gu Lanzhu’s heart.
“Don’t take another step forward. Whatever I do in front of an escaped convict counts as self-defense.”
Gu Lanzhu stood quietly in place, spreading his hands. He stopped walking without any guard, obeying his words. “You don’t need to threaten me. You know my heart will submit to you, don’t you?”
“…” What sin did he commit to have to listen to the original novel’s CEO spout such lines?
He was incredibly double-standard. If Lu Wanqing said such sweet nothings, he could fight him in bed for three hundred rounds. But hearing Gu Lanzhu say this, Shu Ci felt like puking up yesterday’s meal.
“The climate abnormalities have been happening for a long time, haven’t they? Those consecutive days of rain rarely seen in City A, the tsunami in District 3, including the rising temperature in District 7 right now… Everything is derailing. Don’t you find it strange?”
Shu Ci gripped the gun tighter. “Isn’t it your doing?”
The moment Gu Lanzhu appeared, the ice sculpture park began to melt.
“You could say that, but it’s not accurate.” Gu Lanzhu raised his head slightly, looking at Shu Ci through the fragmented black hair on his forehead. “This is a signal, a cry for help. It’s the scream of this world wanting to return to the right track. Do you understand?”
Shu Ci locked his gaze on Gu Lanzhu, trying to discern some clue.
However, Gu Lanzhu’s expression told him that these words were spoken with immense conviction.
Shu Ci’s mouth twitched. “By ‘right track,’ do you mean…”
Gu Lanzhu puffed out his chest, leaning close to the muzzle of the gun formed by Shu Ci’s pheromones, and whispered, “It’s our destiny, Shu Ci. Everything should return to the state where we are together. That is what’s correct, isn’t it?”
The plot again. The “right track” Gu Lanzhu believed in was the plot. The laws of this world were still being consciously manipulated by the so-called plot, allowing him to escape such a secure prison with ease.
Shu Ci’s fingertips trembled slightly.
Were they destined to be forever bound by that damned plot hanging over their necks? Did he have to walk to the ending under Gu Lanzhu’s domination?
But what would it look like after reaching the ending?
To be trapped in the plot for a lifetime like Lu Wanqing, unable to live truly and unable to die?
Thinking of Lu Wanqing’s sorrowful eyes that spanned countless timelines on the day of the marking, Shu Ci’s heart constricted even more. They had long stood completely on the opposite side of the plot. No one could bear the cost of doing it all over again with clear consciousness.
“In your dreams!” Shu Ci’s eyes turned cold, and the moment he spoke, he fired at Gu Lanzhu.
The bullet formed of pheromones had its range, speed, and trajectory controlled entirely by his will.
Compared to when he first drew the bow to shoot the mutant creatures at sea, this shot condensed almost all his mental will, striking Gu Lanzhu at a perfect angle.
To his surprise, Gu Lanzhu didn’t even release pheromones!
He simply turned his head with a smile and crouched slightly.
How could he be so composed? Shu Ci’s eyes widened. He watched his bullet, condensed with the unique fluctuations of pheromones, cut through the air. Originally meant to hit Gu Lanzhu’s heart, it struck his gland directly instead.
Bang!
The flesh behind the neck burst open. But there were no ruptured arteries or spraying blood as imagined. Instead of bright red blood, silver-white thin strips splattered out from the cracks in the gland wound.
Those were the things Shu Ci was familiar with—mutant creatures!
Shu Ci’s pupils shrank abruptly. He exploded instantly, his gland pouring out new pheromones to pursue the silver-white creatures while simultaneously firing several pheromone bullets to block their escape routes.
However, relying on Shu Ci alone, he couldn’t stop the creatures rushing in all directions.
The park was full of untrained Omegas everywhere; their faint pheromone scents were the best bait. The group of mutant creatures seemed to have arrived in paradise, fleeing in all directions with drooling mouths.
“Ah—Mommy!!!”
Not far away, the little Omega girl who had just greeted him was climbing down from a melting ice prism. She accidentally fell from the height, and her parents screamed as they ran toward her.
A silver-white creature suddenly condensed into a bloody maw, flying below where the child was falling, welcoming the delicious food.
Shu Ci withdrew a portion of his pheromones, condensing them into wings. In an instant, he flew into the sky like a shooting star, catching the little girl steadily. Then, the wings folded slightly, forming a tight pheromone barrier between the mutant creature and the girl.
“Go find your mom and dad and help me call for help.” Shu Ci whispered a string of numbers into the little girl’s ear while dodging the chaotic attacks of the mutant creature. “Since you want to become like the two General Lus, you should be able to do it, right?”
Fortunately, Lu Wanqing had added a dedicated line for him in the Seventh District Base’s transfer communications.
“Mn!” The little girl’s eyes sparkled. The next second, she fell from Shu Ci’s arms into her parents’ embrace.
Shu Ci blocked in front of them, recalling Lu Wanqing’s appearance, and raised a curved barrier.
He wouldn’t have known without trying, but trying made him realize how bottomless Lu Wanqing’s upper limit was. This consumed immense pheromone energy, almost engaging a person’s entire mind.
The majestic scent of jasmine surged in the air. The ultimate pheromone scent attracted the attention of the mutant creatures; they gathered more and more, surging toward Shu Ci eagerly.
“How many people can you save?” Gu Lanzhu stepped on a silver-white creature swimming in the air, drifting over slowly. “There are tens of thousands of people in the park, and millions in the entire Seventh District. If I let them all move at once, can you handle it?”
As soon as his voice fell, Shu Ci saw cracks appear in the middle of the park roads, and cluster after cluster of black mutant creatures surged out from the fissures.
“Is this how you escaped prison?” Shu Ci suddenly remembered the news Shen Ti told him about the collapse of the Northern Suburbs Prison. “You can control them?”
“Of course.” Gu Lanzhu curved his eyes.
As if to verify his words, all the mutant creatures stopped in place after his voice fell.
“I kept having a dream about a train. In the dream, it would always derail and crash. Later, when I met it inside the Iron Chopsticks, I knew what that metaphor meant.”
Gu Lanzhu reminisced in front of Shu Ci without fear. The silver-white creature by his hand condensed into a pair of lips, opening and closing under Gu Lanzhu’s hand, emitting giggling laughter.
“It’s you. You and that 1% Alpha have been changing the trajectory, making everything abnormal!”
Accompanying Gu Lanzhu’s anger, the mutant creatures on the ground opened their sharp teeth wide, threatening everyone in the park not under Shu Ci’s protection.
“Did you also get the power to manipulate them in prison?” Shu Ci asked to divert Gu Lanzhu’s attention while staring fixedly at that mouth, trying to sense its fatal point.
Based on his and Lu Wanqing’s experience fighting silver-white creatures, their weak points were extremely small, hidden very deep, and they were more intelligent than the black mutants.
“Of course. I said, I have to thank the Bai family’s young master.” Gu Lanzhu tapped his own gland. “If he hadn’t provoked me with the match rate, I wouldn’t have released pheromones under confinement. Fortunately, my gland was destroyed, and a blessing in disguise, I gained their power.”
Using pheromones to fight back against the neck shackles allowed for three attempts.
The third time, the electric current would destroy the gland.
He originally had a death wish, fed up with prison life, intending to take Bai Yue down with him. Unexpectedly, the mouth on the wall drilled into his gland instantly, bringing him new life and a chance to break out.
“Shu Ci, destiny gave me a chance. It wants us to be together.” Gu Lanzhu extended his hand firmly. “As long as you are with me, leave with me, I promise they won’t hurt anyone.”
“Do you think you’re luring a child with candy?” Shu Ci rolled his eyes, catching a glimpse of the little Omega girl making a gesture to him from the corner of his eye.
He froze. Did she get through?
Shu Ci tried his best to control his expression, his brain spinning fast. He had to stall for time. Before Lu Wanqing arrived, he had to try to control Gu Lanzhu and minimize mass casualties.
So, he tentatively took a step toward Gu Lanzhu.
Sure enough, the various creatures floating in the sky and popping out of the ground retreated a distance.
He took another step.
The mutant creatures retreated simultaneously, and this time, the temperature in the air stopped rising; the cold air gradually flowed back.
Gu Lanzhu looked at him composedly, his hand extended motionless. Shu Ci’s eyelashes trembled. He took a deep breath and walked forward more silently.
His battle line with the mutant creatures formed a push-and-pull, while he simultaneously adjusted the range of his pheromone release, trying his best to envelop the people scattering throughout the park under his barrier.
At his side was his tightly clenched fist.
Wait. Shu Ci’s pace suddenly paused.
If, according to Gu Lanzhu, the silver-white creatures made him realize everything, then they must possess some higher form of thinking. That meant Gu Lanzhu wasn’t actually controlling them, but they were controlling Gu Lanzhu!
Now Gu Lanzhu was threatening him with the people in the park—wasn’t this the Plot Consciousness threatening him? It was hinting that he must go with Gu Lanzhu, must follow the original novel’s plot, to make these creatures disappear, to make the abnormal weather vanish!
But thinking in reverse, shouldn’t the Plot Consciousness need Gu Lanzhu as a vessel?
If Gu Lanzhu died, if there was no male lead, how could the Plot Consciousness continue?
Shu Ci, who grew up in a society ruled by law, was not like those Alphas who survived through physical slaughter. He had never thought that one day, to survive, he would aim his gun at a living life.
Even when Gu Lanzhu used pheromones to make him lose himself and get lost in the worst situation, he only thought about sending him the legal code, never about ending his life.
He always firmly believed that an emotional individual had no right to decide another person’s life or death; any crime should be decided by the law.
But now, his muzzle was about to tremble and shatter his conviction.
“You can’t kill all of these guys,” Gu Lanzhu laughed. “They sleep underground. If you and Lu Wanqing insist on being together, they will appear endlessly. At that time, you will be the sinners of the world.”
Shu Ci’s throat bobbed, and he spoke slowly, “What if… the ones I want to kill aren’t them?”
But you?
He closed his eyes, sensing the pheromones in the air, sensing the fluctuation of all energies. His perception grew stronger; even with his eyes closed, he could capture Gu Lanzhu’s beating heart.
Bang—
A loud noise rang out, and Shu Ci opened his eyes abruptly.
Gu Lanzhu stared with wide, round eyes, like a puppet with cut strings. His limbs swayed, and he fell from the silver-white creature carrying him, blood mist spraying up.
How could this be? I clearly haven’t fired yet!?
The next second, a youth in a dark blue uniform flipped off the park wall and strode up to Shu Ci.
“Xingxing…”
“Boss can only come later. Although he doesn’t want me to steal his spotlight in saving people, there’s no helping it. These guys have started appearing in all twelve districts!”
Yu Xingxing kicked Gu Lanzhu on the ground without changing his expression, earnestly confirming the kill, then looked back at Shu Ci.
“He specifically ordered that if possible, he hopes I don’t let your hands get stained with blood, so don’t be mad that I stole this kill.”
Shu Ci’s eyes stung. Holding back the moisture at the corners of his eyes, he nodded.
Lu Wanqing understood him better than he imagined. He knew they grew up in different worlds with different mindsets, so he probably guessed early on that even if Shu Ci had the ability to kill mutant creatures, he might not have the resolve to kill Gu Lanzhu in one strike.
After all, that was a living human being.
“I won’t.” He shook his head at Yu Xingxing.
When he felt himself being loved so intensely by Lu Wanqing, how could he be angry?
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