“What if eating it worsens his mutation?” others objected.
“The Five-Colored Rope in my hand—Lu Mingxuan brought it back to the Lu Family, and it’s only been seven days to today. Doesn’t meet the requirement,” Lin Juan reminded.
Yet to him, even this seven-day-old one held fatal allure for Sun Qiang.
Maybe time wasn’t a strict condition.
Verifying was easy. The Anomalous Affairs Bureau had collected plenty of Five-Colored Ropes. Lin Juan made a call, and soon helicopter rotors thrummed overhead.
Zhuang Yufeng came down carrying a large box.
“I brought Five-Colored Ropes from different batches.”
Some worn for a day, some two, some fresh and unworn.
Lin Juan took them out one by one, leaving the rest in the Containment Box, and placed them before Sun Qiang.
The test proved: worn or not, the Five-Colored Ropes’ pull on Sun Qiang only grew stronger.
No time restriction.
Zhuang Yufeng scanned Sun Qiang’s body with his supernatural ability and confirmed he was fully mutated—not recently either.
“It should have been a few days ago. No idea how he kept human consciousness.”
Zhuang Yufeng had seen this before in his previous life: pollution from an S-Rank Anomaly. The victims seemed normal but were long twisted into weirds without human emotions. Worst, they disguised perfectly—undetectable without special means.
S-rank anomalies clearly wouldn’t appear until several years later, so why was there an infectee like this now? What exactly was on Solitary Cry Mountain? Could it be related to the S-rank anomaly that would emerge out of nowhere in the future?
Countless questions swirled in Zhuang Yufeng’s mind. Zhuang Yufeng’s expression grew grave. They had to take action soon and figure out what was really on Solitary Cry Mountain.
The Vine Person was handed over to the people from the Anomalous Affairs Bureau for processing. Once they found the person behind the scenes, Director Liu immediately returned the money to the other’s account.
Lu Mingxuan saw the transfer notification on his phone and found it unbelievable. “It actually came back.”
“The person has been caught, so the money naturally had to be returned to its original owner.” Lin Juan was very satisfied with the Anomalous Affairs Bureau’s efficiency.
“Little Uncle, what exactly happened that night?” Lu Mingxuan scratched his ear and cheek, dying of curiosity.
That night, he hadn’t wanted to sleep at all. But somehow, a wave of drowsiness suddenly washed over him, and he fell asleep without realizing it. He had a nightmare he couldn’t quite remember. When he woke up, it was already bright outside. He had completely missed all the heart-pounding excitement of the midnight hour.
“The boss who sold you the Five-Colored Rope secretly followed us and tried to steal it back. He got caught red-handed.” Lin Juan simplified the process as much as possible. It wasn’t entirely unrelated, but it really wasn’t a big deal.
“How could he do that?” Lu Mingxuan griped. “If he really couldn’t bear to part with it, he shouldn’t have sold it in the first place. Who sells something and then steals it back? What a weirdo.”
“What does he take us consumers for?” Although Lu Mingxuan had lived a worry-free life of luxury since childhood and never fretted over money, he couldn’t stand that kind of behavior. “People like us who bought the Five-Colored Rope are just total suckers, huh.”
They spent the money and got scammed into buying something so terrifying.
The Anomalous Affairs Bureau compiled statistics on the effects of wearing the Five-Colored Rope for multiple days.
If it was removed within one or two days, the only effect would be nightmares for the next few days and poor sleep. It wouldn’t cause any substantial harm to the body.
If worn for three days or more, even after removal, some people would still be affected.
Specifically, starting from the seventh day, they would have nightmares. The more immersed they became in the nightmares, the higher their pollution value would rise. Once it exceeded the critical threshold, strange leaves would sprout on their bodies.
If worn for six days, the effects would be the same whether it was removed afterward or not.
Starting from the seventh day, the nightmares would grow more realistic with each passing day. They would sleep poorly at night and doze off during the day, but as soon as they fell asleep, they would plunge into endless nightmares.
In the dreams, they encountered all sorts of monsters. On vast, empty lands, enormous plants burst from the ground. Monsters slaughtered each other, blood and flesh spilling everywhere, only to be swept up by stationary leaves on the ground and devoured clean.
Every living thing on the surface became nourishment for the giant plants.
After ten days, leaves began sprouting from the limbs of those polluted. The leaves grew longer and longer, drawing nutrients from the human body and thriving.
In the end, the parasitized humans were drained dry by the plants growing from inside them, leaving only an empty husk of skin.
Fortunately, thanks to the Anomalous Affairs Bureau’s intervention, no victims reached that final stage. Before they were completely devoured, the pollution in their bodies was cleared in time. After some rest and recovery, they would regain their vitality.
After a few days of recuperation and confirmation that his body was fine, Lu Third Brother Lu Yanmo left the Imperial Capital for Shenhai.
He took the Research Institute’s dedicated flight, and that same afternoon, the Lu Family received word of his safe arrival.
In the evening, Lin Juan and Lu Yanzhou got off work together as usual. He pushed the wheelchair and pressed the elevator button.
Over this period, the company had gradually learned that their President Lu had personally recruited an assistant. They came and went together, clocking in and out at the same time. No one would believe there was nothing going on between them.
But very few people knew Lin Juan and Lu Yanzhou’s true relationship.
Aside from Lu Yanzhou’s assistants, basically no one knew.
After all, very few people in the entire group were aware that Lu Yanzhou was married.
Not everyone had the channels to know that the group’s biggest recent project had gone more smoothly thanks to Lin Juan’s presence.
Most people figured Lin Juan was a canary kept by Lu Yanzhou.
A highly favored one at that.
It was mainly because Lin Juan’s looks were right there. It wasn’t empty talk—his youthful beauty outshone current young idols.
They had privately discussed more than once whether President Lu would send him into the entertainment industry. With such an outstanding face, even without any talent, they would stan him just for that.
Lin Juan moved around the company, not just staying in the top-floor office. To check if anyone at Lu Corporation Headquarters was secretly up to no good, he had visited every floor, passing through every nook and cranny casually.
He hadn’t found any traces of pollutants.
The more he walked around, the more people saw him. Those in the dark grew curious: when did headquarters get an employee like this? How had they not heard a thing?
Word spread, and they finally learned that Lin Juan was the new assistant working on the top floor. No wonder they never saw him at a workstation.
Lin Juan and Lu Yanzhou coming and going together wasn’t something they hid on purpose. It was only a matter of time before company employees noticed.
When the discovery first broke, it caused a tsunami of discussion in private groups.
Later, everyone settled on the guess that the new assistant was probably a canary kept by President Lu.
Of course, that speculation ended that very evening.
President Li’s Son had heard the news from who-knows-where, claiming his father had been maliciously fired by President Lu. He rounded up a bunch of people to stake out the place. As soon as Lu Yanzhou and Lin Juan appeared on the first floor, they surrounded them.
“President Lu, I just came to get some justice for my father.”
A large group of burly, muscular men closed in on them, their visual pressure overwhelming.
“Security! Call security!”
“Call the police!”
“Mr. Li, please calm down first. We can talk about whatever it is…”
Chaos erupted on the first floor.
“There’s nothing to talk about. When President Lu fired my dad, did he ever think this day would come?” President Li’s Son refused to back down. From his attitude, he wasn’t there to solve anything—he was purely there to vent his rage.
And that was the truth. After President Li was dismissed, their lives plummeted. President Li’s Son, used to living large, couldn’t tolerate the drop.
He got hooked on gambling.
Once you’re in the gambling pit, there are no winners.
President Li’s Son tasted victory at first and won a bunch of money. Unfortunately, that was just bait to lure him deeper.
Afterward, he lost more and more. When he ran out of cash, he mortgaged the house. When there was no house left, he bet his hands and feet. In his red-eyed frenzy, he didn’t know fear. But when the knife pressed against his neck, he did.
He bawled his eyes out, snot and tears everywhere.
President Li’s Son knelt and begged for mercy, saying he’d do anything as long as they didn’t chop off his hands or feet. He swore he’d win it all back next time.
How could the casino people believe in “winning it back”?
Just as the blade was about to fall on his arm, someone interrupted.
A masked man asked if he wanted to get revenge on the person who ruined his family. If so, he could temporarily cover the debt and borrow someone else’s hands for the revenge.
President Li’s Son agreed without a second thought.
And so, today’s “justice-seeking” happened.
His real goal wasn’t justice, though. It was to sneak the people provided by that man into the company and teach Lu Yanzhou a lesson.
Why should Lu Yanzhou live high and mighty while he skulked like a rat in the gutters?
Thinking of what Lu Yanzhou was about to suffer, President Li’s Son’s eyes reddened with excitement.
A favored son of heaven dragged into the mud—what a spectacular show!
But he never imagined that the moment his people moved, the pretty young man pushing Lu Yanzhou’s wheelchair struck.
His movements were too fast. Before anyone could react, he took down everyone President Li’s Son had brought.
Thud thud—bodies hit the floor, the sounds ringing out like background music.
In an instant, the ground was littered with groaning burly men.
President Li’s Son, the only one still standing, was dumbfounded.
What just happened? Wasn’t President Lu and the pretty boy behind him supposed to get beaten? How did it flip?
The security team that rushed over urgently, along with the employees already on the first floor, stared in bewilderment.
Did they miss something? How did these aggressive bruisers all end up on the ground wailing in the blink of an eye?
Then they looked at the long-haired youth who dusted off his hands and returned to stand behind President Lu’s wheelchair. Everyone was dumbfounded:
This wasn’t a canary President Lu kept—it was a golden eagle.
So fierce. So badass.
