Chapter 47 Part 2

Fan Xiwen was the only living person known to the Anomalous Affairs Bureau who had contact with the Black Trench Coat Man. Once her body recovered, the Anomalous Affairs Bureau sought her out to ask about what happened back then.

Fan Xiwen was very cooperative. In the end, she chose to continue her studies. Her memories were frozen before the incident occurred, so she did not opt to go straight to university. Instead, she planned to take the gaokao again.

“I got into Imperial Capital University back then, and I can do it again now,” Fan Xiwen insisted.

Her parents believed in her unconditionally. “If Wenwen says she can, then she definitely can.”

During the annual exam week, Lin Juan sat in a milk tea shop near the school, watching the students come and go outside. He sighed. “Good thing I don’t have to take exams.”

Lu Mingxuan chewed on his straw. “Good thing I’ve already finished mine.”

“I heard Little Uncle wants to send you to school too. Little Uncle-in-law, come to our school! It’s really fun!”

“Who told you that?” Lin Juan slurped his milk tea.

“I accidentally overheard Grandpa talking to Little Uncle,” Lu Mingxuan said, scratching his cheek sheepishly. “I wasn’t trying to eavesdrop. Grandpa asked me to bring him something.”

“It’s fine,” Lin Juan said nonchalantly. “I’ve already turned your Little Uncle down.”

Lin Juan had not expected that right after refusing Lu Yanzhou, he would receive a special commission when he went to the Anomalous Affairs Bureau.

Lin Juan had come to the Anomalous Affairs Bureau to see Chu Jifan.

Chu Jifan’s value to Huaguo was too great. After discussions, the higher-ups had decided for the time being not to execute her like other Weird entities, but to see if they could learn some techniques from her.

“If only she were still human,” Director Liu sighed.

“No big difference,” Lin Juan said, standing outside the transparent laboratory and watching Chu Jifan busy at work inside.

Chu Jifan was different from many other weird phenomena. Perhaps because she was born from an obsession, she wasn’t very aggressive toward anyone except the original lab members. She was single-mindedly focused on her research.

After developing the potion Lin Juan wanted, she asked the people from the Anomalous Affairs Bureau for other materials to conduct new experiments.

When she saw Lin Juan, Chu Jifan stopped what she was doing and approached.

They gazed at each other through the transparent wall made of special materials.

The door opened, and Lin Juan entered alone.

As if chatting casually, Lin Juan spoke up. “Are you getting used to living here?”

“It’s alright,” Chu Jifan said as she tidied up the files on her desk. “It would be nice if someone could assist me.”

Lin Juan had a thought. “Would you be willing to let them help?”

“Aren’t they the ones who are scared and don’t dare to come in?” Chu Jifan raised an eyebrow. “I’ve never said they couldn’t enter.”

“That’s true,” Lin Juan nodded. “Aren’t you afraid they’ll leak your research results?”

“I’m not even human anymore, and I can’t win any awards with this research. I just want to do research. If you can find a few assistants who work well with me, I wouldn’t mind teaching them all my previous results.”

“You’re really willing?” Lin Juan asked in surprise.

“It would be even better if my results could bring crisis to those people behind the lab,” Chu Jifan said with a hint of malice.

“After all these years, they still haven’t been exposed at all. It’s really frustrating.”

After becoming a weird phenomenon, Chu Jifan’s emotions were even harder to control. Her likes and dislikes were starkly clear, and she hated the lab to the bone.

“To be honest, if you hadn’t locked me up here, I might have gone to seek revenge on them by now.”

“Then our goals align.”

Chu Jifan wasn’t so easily persuaded. “From what I know, you’re not with the Anomalous Affairs Bureau. Do you have any deep grudge against the lab?”

“A friend of mine might have caught their attention, and that pisses me off too,” Lin Juan said, giving a rough account of what Qiu Lishu had done. “I don’t know what the aftereffects of eating those eyeballs would be.”

Now it was Chu Jifan’s turn to be surprised. “You’re saying your friend ate an eyeball and showed no signs of mutation?”

“Yeah.”

“That’s impossible,” Chu Jifan refuted instinctively. “In all those experiments, no one could resist B-023’s pollution. Either that, or your friend has already mutated but hasn’t let you know.”

“I’ve been with him the whole time. He really showed no signs of mutation, and his pollution value was very low. He was just unconscious for a long time at first, then he woke up. Oh, right—last time after I entered the illusion, he passed out once. He said that during the blackout, he dreamed about what happened in the illusion, which matched up with my experiences there.”

Lin Juan didn’t mention that Lu Yanzhou had turned into an experimental subject. He only said the other party had dreamed of the illusion’s events. Chu Jifan assumed it was the same as their situation and found it strange. “But aside from you all, I didn’t sense anyone else entering the illusion.”

“Maybe you weren’t fully awake at the time and missed it in your perception,” Lin Juan said.

Chu Jifan had truly awakened after Lin Juan shattered the illusion. In a way, without Lin Juan, she would never have regained consciousness. 【Memory Recall】 would have remained stuck between two-dimensional and three-dimensional space, trapping those who approached but unable to be perceived by anyone.

“Maybe,” Chu Jifan sank into thought. “But your friend being unaffected is very much worth studying. If you’re willing to let him come here for me to examine, I’ll give you all my previous results for free. How about it?”

By the end, excitement was evident in Chu Jifan’s voice.

Accordingly, the pollution value in the room rose significantly.

“Not interested,” Lin Juan rejected her without mercy. “He’s human. Didn’t you hate human experimentation the most?”

“I’m not doing human experiments,” Chu Jifan said as she picked up a test tube and shook it. “I’ll just draw some blood, take a sample, and see if I can discover anything.”

Fluorescent green liquid swirled in the test tube, drawing Lin Juan’s attention. “What’s this?”

Chu Jifan tossed the test tube casually, and Lin Juan caught it.

“A little accidental byproduct. It explodes and can be used to blast weird phenomena.”

Lin Juan examined the test tube. “Your research speed is impressive. I remember you didn’t like researching this stuff before.”

“I didn’t like it, but then I thought about it—this stuff is pretty useful too. Perfect for blowing up scumbags.”

Lin Juan steered away from the dangerous topic. “Those two girls have recovered. They’ve both chosen to continue their studies. Their families wanted to thank you in person, but I said you weren’t convenient, so they asked me to pass on their thanks instead.”

“They even recorded a video. I’ll play it for you.”

Lin Juan pulled out his phone, opened the gallery, and hit play.

The Fan Family appeared first. The Fan parents hadn’t had much education and didn’t spout grand principles. Their words were simple, and that very simplicity made them especially sincere.

Chu Jifan, whose anger value had been slowly rising, paused. She snapped out of her fury—perhaps because she hadn’t expected such a thank-you video. A brief blankness appeared on her face.

After a long moment, she pursed her lips. “No need to thank me. Don’t tell them I’m a weird phenomenon.”

They would be scared if they knew, right?

For the first time in a long while, a sharp pain stabbed through Chu Jifan’s heart.

Her current body could hardly feel physical pain anymore. This pain came from the depths of her soul—from the self she had once been as a human.

After fully mutating into a weird phenomenon, was there really no way to reverse it?

A strong desire welled up in Chu Jifan’s heart. A new obsession replaced her previous thirst for revenge. She didn’t want to be a weird phenomenon controlled by instinct any longer.

“I want to continue my unfinished research,” Chu Jifan said, her voice catching slightly. “I’ll select a few assistants. I can hand over all my previous research results. Mr. Lin, I want to talk to the higher-ups at the Anomalous Affairs Bureau.”

Lin Juan didn’t respond.

Chu Jifan knew her bargaining chips weren’t enough and upped the ante. “Mr. Lin, there’s some information you might be interested in.”

“Have you heard of the ‘Holy Mother Plan’?”

The “Holy Mother Plan” had been proposed by the higher-ups in the lab where Chu Jifan once worked. They selected a batch of women living in human society. Chu Jifan didn’t know their selection method, but she knew the chosen women would become hosts.

Those people would gradually inject weird phenomena into these hosts while also injecting potions that countered the weird phenomena, reducing the pollution so the hosts could continue living in human society without awareness.

“This plan was proposed before Experimental Subject B-023 showed signs of evolution. Qiu Lishu is very likely one of the selected hosts.”

“Wait,” Lin Juan interrupted her. “If Qiu Lishu was B-023’s host, why did she mutate into a 【Humanback Spider】?”

“I don’t know if that’s exactly how it is—it’s just my guess. Human hosts are very fragile, but they’re an indispensable part of weird phenomena experiments. To hatch stronger weird phenomena, the best method is to infect the host with a more powerful weird phenomenon right before incubation.”

“Qiu Lishu gave birth to three children, and all three were spiders,” Lin Juan recalled the three spiders of varying sizes. “Can humans and spiders have children?”

Shouldn’t there be reproductive isolation?

“No, reproductive isolation isn’t a joke. Those people wouldn’t have polluted Qiu Lishu into a weird phenomenon years in advance either. The children you mentioned must have been from later pollution.”

After talking with Chu Jifan, Lin Juan relayed her requests to Director Liu. He wouldn’t get involved in the internal affairs of the Anomalous Affairs Bureau.

“Does Mr. Lin think Chu Jifan’s words are credible?” Director Liu pondered for a moment before asking.

“Not entirely credible, but not completely unreliable either,” Lin Juan said meaningfully. “Even humans can develop ulterior motives. In that light, what’s the difference between weird phenomena and humans?”

“I understand.”

Before leaving, Director Liu stopped Lin Juan. “Mr. Lin, we’d like to ask you for a favor.”

The favor Director Liu mentioned was assigning Lin Juan a new identity and sending him to school.

Lin Juan took out the school uniform Director Liu had sent and changed into it.

It was the most common Huaguo school uniform style—blue and white. Wearing it gave off a vibrant youthful vibe. Lin Juan looked at himself in the mirror. If he walked out like this, no one would doubt he was a high school student. No wonder Director Liu wanted his help.

He adjusted his collar and walked out of the bathroom.

Lu Yanzhou had just entered and caught sight of the long-haired youth in the school uniform. His breath hitched.

The youth already had a face captivating enough to stir the heart. With his fair skin, dressed in the school uniform, he looked just like a student who had never left his ivory tower.

Lu Yanzhou couldn’t help but imagine what it would be like if Lin Juan were really a student.

If Lin Juan went to school, he would definitely be very popular.

In the school uniform, he looked so obedient—small and well-behaved. Lu Yanzhou felt an instinctive urge to protect him, to keep all the best things in the world for him.

Lin Juan looked up and saw Lu Yanzhou staring at him in a daze. He waved a hand in front of Lu Yanzhou’s eyes. “Lu Yanzhou?”

Lu Yanzhou blinked and snapped out of his thoughts. He grasped the hand Lin Juan had extended toward him. “Why is Juan Juan dressed like this today?”

“Like what?” Lin Juan glanced down at himself and realized. “Oh, you mean this school uniform?”

Lu Yanzhou nodded. “Has Juan Juan changed his mind and decided to go to school?”

But that didn’t seem right. This was clearly a high school uniform. Lu Yanzhou’s gaze shifted to the badge on Lin Juan’s left chest, which read “Upward Middle School.”

He had no impression of Upward Middle School and planned to look it up later, but from the uniform style, it seemed like a public school.

“Did Juan Juan reject my suggestion because he doesn’t want to go straight to university and plans to start from high school?”

It wasn’t impossible. Lu Yanzhou couldn’t help but think about what changes would be needed at home with a high schooler around.

“If there are classes he can’t keep up with, we can hire a tutor. The school probably isn’t too close—otherwise, we could buy a house in the school district…”

Seeing him start making a phone call to his assistant as he spoke, Lin Juan hurriedly snatched the phone away. “Wait, wait. Don’t you think it’s weird for me to go to high school?”

For some reason, Lu Yanzhou’s eyes flickered.

His wife suddenly becoming a high schooler was indeed a bit strange.

Beyond that, there was an indescribable sense of thrill.

Lu Yanzhou’s throat bobbed as if convincing himself. “Not strange at all.”