Chapter 61: Butterfly Specimen Museum (11), Try Turning Back into Human Form

Xu Xiye put away his phone, perked up, and returned to work mode: “Alright, follow me.”

His tone was normal, but his little look was slightly resentful.

Xiao Jingsi acted as if he hadn’t noticed and didn’t move immediately. Instead, he said, “Docent, is there something wrong with my request?”

Xu Xiye: “…No.”

Xiao Jingsi: “Then why are they looking at me like that? As if they can’t help but want to eat me alive.”

Xu Xiye followed his gaze and saw the five locals staring intently at Xiao Jingsi without blinking.

Noticing his gaze, the five locals now looked uniformly at him.

Xu Xiye stared back at them for a moment, then relaxed and said decisively to Xiao Jingsi, “Impossible. They don’t eat people.”

To avoid bigger conflicts due to cultural differences, Xu Xiye told the five locals, “If you have nothing else, just head back first. It’s already dark.”

Tidy up, have a meal, watch some TV, and then you can go out for night crawling. No need to linger here.

“Alright. Docent, we’ll be off then.”

“Docent, finish work early. Don’t work too hard.”

“Goodbye, Docent! Next time we come, we still want you as our docent!”

One by one, they said goodbye to Xu Xiye. Watching their receding backs made Xu Xiye even more assured. “See, they won’t eat you.”

Xiao Jingsi chuckled. It was that same smile tinged with interest. “Alright, then let’s go, Docent.”

Xu Xiye acknowledged this.

“Baby,” Xie Lincheng called out to him at that moment. “Docent, can we follow and watch?”

Xu Xiye hesitated. “You can, but you can only stay outside.”

Xie Lincheng: “Alright, we’ll stay outside.”

Finally, they could go. Xu Xiye led them through the winding corridor and soon arrived at the spacious main hall. When one entered the exhibition hall through the main entrance, this was the first hall they stepped into.

They thought Xu Xiye would take them to a side room, but he stopped in front of a round object directly opposite the main entrance.

From the front, this thing was round. From the side, it resembled a cylindrical shape, slightly curved. One end was a bit larger, and the other had a tail hook. Its surface was covered in colorful patterns.

It symbolized the entire abdomen of a butterfly.

Its first impression was no different from those decorative columns. At least, that’s what they had initially thought. The result now told them otherwise.

“This is it,” Xu Xiye said. He placed both hands on the middle, pushed outward, and the seamless-looking circle split into two halves.

Inside was pitch black. A wave of heat surged out, eerie and profound.

Entering directly into a butterfly’s abdomen—could one really emerge alive and lucid?

“Very dangerous,” Lou Hao stated. Noticing Xu Xiye looking over, he added, “For us.”

Xu Xiye paused. This hadn’t occurred to him. He immediately looked at Xiao Jingsi, his eyes asking whether he still wanted to continue.

Xiao Jingsi: “It’s fine. I’m prepared.”

Xu Xiye, however, blocked the entrance with no intention of moving aside.

Xiao Jingsi: “What’s wrong? Is this voluntary project not allowed now? If so, I’ll file a complaint against you.”

“No!” Xu Xiye frowned slightly, his small face very serious. He didn’t want to be complained about. “You have to make a disclaimer.”

Xie Lincheng laughed silently. Xiao Jingsi paused in surprise. “In that case, I’ll make the disclaimer. I voluntarily participate in the Become a Butterfly experience project. No matter what happens or any consequences, I bear full responsibility. Is that acceptable?”

“Acceptable,” Xu Xiye said. “Come in. You all wait outside.”

After speaking, Xu Xiye went in first, followed by Xiao Jingsi. The door closed, blocking the view of everyone outside.

“The operation for this project is very simple. You just push open the second door, lie down inside, and you can experience becoming a butterfly. Come here. Do you know how to open the door? Just like I did.”

Xu Xiye arrived at the second door and gestured with his hand where to place one’s hands.

The light inside was dim. For Xu Xiye, it posed no hindrance. Xiao Jingsi, however, needed quite a while to adjust before he could barely make out the other’s facial features.

“Why aren’t you speaking? Can’t learn?” Xu Xiye hadn’t heard a response and couldn’t help but turn his head.

Xiao Jingsi stood two steps behind him, silently staring at him.

Xu Xiye: “?”

Xiao Jingsi suddenly leaned against the wall, looking utterly exhausted.

Xu Xiye asked worriedly, “What’s wrong? Are you about to die?”

“…No. Just a bit tired.”

“Then do you still want to experience it?”

“Of course. But before that, chat with me for a bit, okay?”

Xu Xiye was rather unwilling, but Xiao Jingsi ignored this and continued on his own, “Aren’t you someone who likes to chat? I saw you chatting very well with Xie Lincheng.”

Xu Xiye began to recall. Had he really talked a lot with Xie Lincheng during work hours? Not really. Sometimes they even exchanged information directly using mental energy; others wouldn’t know.

“Docent?”

“Mm.”

“Xu Xiye.”

“?” What?

“Which do you prefer being called, baby?”

Xu Xiye was baffled. His pair of pitch-black, beautiful eyes stared at him, utterly bewildered.

“Feeling tired?”

Xu Xiye nodded.

“Good. Come a little closer. I have something to give you.”

Xu Xiye didn’t move, confused. He couldn’t think of anything this person would give him. However, just then, the man in front of him suddenly grabbed his arm and pulled him close. “Alright, baby, look into my eyes.”

“Look into my eyes.”

His voice was very gentle, magnetic and pleasant, imbued with a bewitching quality. For Xu Xiye, who often engaged in staring contests with people, there was even less reason to refuse now.

His entire state now seemed sluggish and slow. Even with his wrist tightly gripped, he showed no panic. He looked up and just stared at Xiao Jingsi’s eyes with naive bewilderment.

Dark brown eyes. Often they looked almost the same as black. The most common eye color here was black, nothing special, Xu Xiye thought.

But he didn’t avert his gaze. Xiao Jingsi kept staring at him, so he continued staring back.

“So obedient,” Xiao Jingsi praised. “You know, some things, I don’t need any verification. One glance is enough to confirm you are the most perfect, the most unique one.”

“Want to see the gift I’m giving you? How about putting it into your body? Right here.” He bowed his head and tugged Xu Xiye’s sleeve up slightly, rubbing his fingertip against the skin on his wrist.

Xu Xiye followed his gaze to that spot, still with that same clueless, dazed expression.

Xiao Jingsi took a syringe from his pocket. He opened the packaging right in front of Xu Xiye and even deliberately showed him the front end of the syringe. “Just this little thing. Crystal clear, very beautiful, isn’t it?”

Xu Xiye nodded again. It was indeed a very pretty little bead, even faintly glowing blue.

Xiao Jingsi continued, “But I hope that after it’s injected, you won’t remember it. That would be most fitting.”

Xu Xiye didn’t respond.

Xiao Jingsi, holding the syringe, started to move closer.

Xu Xiye suddenly said, “Is it an injection? I don’t want an injection.”

Xiao Jingsi’s motion halted. Seeing that he was still in that dazed state, his resistance not even noticeable, he continued his action without much concern, while verbally reassuring him, “It’s not an injection. Just putting this inside. It won’t hurt.”

Xu Xiye ultimately didn’t refuse. It wasn’t that he was afraid of pain, nor had he ever had an injection. He just subconsciously felt injections weren’t a good thing. But he wanted that little bead, like a grain of rice.

But why put it inside his body? Once inside his body, he wouldn’t be able to see it anymore.

“Done.” Xiao Jingsi put the item away and noted Xu Xiye’s expression. “Docent, I think I can proceed with the experience project now.”

Xu Xiye: “Oh. Go in. After experiencing it, you can come out on your own. I’ll be leaving now.”

Xiao Jingsi: “By the way…”

Xu Xiye: “What else?”

Xiao Jingsi carefully scrutinized Xu Xiye’s expression again, then looked at his wrist. He adjusted his glasses. His expression seemed very serious, but ultimately, he said nothing more.

Xu Xiye felt this person was very strange. Actually, he had given him a strange feeling the entire time.

Without speaking, he left. This time, until he walked out the door, Xiao Jingsi didn’t call him back.

The moment Xu Xiye came out, the Outsiders waiting outside all looked over.

Xie Lincheng stepped forward and asked, “How is it? He’s not out yet?”

“Not yet. We chatted inside for a bit. He just went in,” Xu Xiye said. “I want to get off work. If any of you want to experience it later, just go in yourselves. The door isn’t locked. But it must be before nine o’clock. We close after nine.”

Xie Lincheng could see he was tired and didn’t say more. “Mm, baby, go off work. We’ll handle things ourselves.”

Xu Xiye also said goodbye to the others and finally walked out the main entrance of the exhibition hall. Then he saw Blue Eyes’ car, parked far off to the side.

Xu Xiye walked over. His pace seemed slow, yet the distance, clearly far, rapidly shrank beneath his feet. Soon, he was beside the driver’s side door. The window was rolled down. He Sui turned his head to look. In the same instant, a humanoid shape squeezed in through the car window. By the time it landed on his lap, it had become a black blob.

Two tentacles extended from the black blob and slapped onto He Sui’s eyes with a “pap” sound.

“Black Blob—”

He Sui drew out his voice, calling him. The black blob ignored him completely. The two tentacles were stuck fast, impossible to pull off.

He Sui tilted his head back against the seat and gave up. He recalled that over all this time, this was the first time the black blob had shed its human form right in front of him.

The black blob was a particular black blob. Even if it was a bit more willful at night, it had never directly changed forms in front of people. It would find a room, just like a person changing clothes, not allowing peeking.

He Sui stroked the black blob’s head. His long, knuckled fingers sank into the unidentified black substance. Soft, bouncy, warm and cool—the touch was very comfortable.

He Sui scratched and kneaded it haphazardly. It was incredibly quiet in the car. Only after a long while did He Sui say, “Still not enough? Like this, I can’t see anything.”

The tentacles rubbed and kneaded his eyes, stepped on them, and then, reluctantly, withdrew. “Then look at me.”

He Sui: “What’s the matter today? Very tired?”

Xu Xiye nodded. “Work today was very tiring. I used a lot of energy to examine every place bit by bit. It was very tiring doing that.”

“Explain in detail,” He Sui said. After arriving here, he’d known this was a high-level contaminated zone. Lacking a suitable identity to get close, he could only park on the fringe. Yet even so, he could feel that repulsive force.

Xu Xiye was tired and didn’t really want to talk. He thought for a moment, then directly used mental energy to transmit everything he wanted to say in one go. Finally, he concluded, “Doing delicate work is really hard.”

He Sui could understand.

The black blob was essentially a special energy body condensed into special matter—an immensely vast energy body.

He Sui had fought it before and had directly clashed against it with mental energy. In He Sui’s view, the black blob was like a cub that only knew how to charge headlong. It didn’t yet know how to apply this energy meticulously and comprehensively.

Alright, to be fair, when it came to mental energy application, He Sui couldn’t claim any finesse either. He wasn’t even as good as Xie Lincheng; he couldn’t even manage to feed information back to the mental energy network.

But he could convert them into his lightning and water system energies for use. As meticulous as one wanted. He could even control when that energy exploded.

An elephant has difficulty noticing the ants under its feet. It was only natural that the current black blob couldn’t do delicate work.

“Who’s inside?” He Sui kneaded the black blob again, then paused mid-action. He belatedly realized that although the black blob was a little monster, it still had a male human-like body. Sitting on his lap for so long really wasn’t appropriate.

He picked up the black blob and placed him in the passenger seat.

The black blob froze, then extended a tentacle to climb back. He Sui pressed him down. “Sit there. That’s your designated spot.”

Xu Xiye protested, “Why? It was fine just now.” It was very convenient for looking at eyes and being looked at by eyes.

He Sui: “Because that violates traffic laws.”

Xu Xiye: “What’s that?”

He Sui clicked his tongue. Dragging this topic out was annoying. “Never mind that. First, tell me who’s inside.”

The black blob grumbled discontentedly.

He Sui found it amusing. “It’s not even nine o’clock, and your temper’s already this bad?”

“…No. Not throwing a tantrum.”

Xu Xiye struck He Sui’s thigh with one tentacle. A neither light nor heavy force. He Sui didn’t move a muscle. “Now can you tell me?”

“I can.” He reported the names of this batch of tourists one by one, including the five locals.

Xu Xiye: “Do you want to go see your brother?”

He Sui didn’t react for a moment. “My brother?”

“One called Lou Hao.”

“Oh. Let’s wait. Probably doesn’t need me.” It was true this was a high-level contaminated zone, but the ones inside each had their own abilities. It looked dangerous, but making them actually perish inside wasn’t that easy.

“You couldn’t find out who the pollution source is?”

“No. I couldn’t find it. Couldn’t pinpoint the location.”

He Sui recalled the information the black blob had transmitted through mental energy. A pulling sensation, vastness, the sound of flapping wings.

He raised his eyes to look at the massive structure standing in the distance. It was very conspicuous—the first thing people saw upon arriving here. It was also very easily overlooked, because once inside, people mostly looked at the butterflies within the exhibition halls.

Furthermore, as humans, they always subconsciously assumed pollution sources were living things—like people, animals, plants. A dead thing like a building was precisely what they most easily overlooked.

“It’s an A+ class pollution source. You can’t take it away. Even if you found it, what could you do about it?”

“I don’t know. I can try a few more times. If it briefly wakes up, maybe it will kill itself.”

“…” He Sui was highly skeptical. “I’ve never seen such a pollution source.”

“I haven’t either. But anyway, it exists. Right, let me show you something. A gift I received today.” As he spoke, the black blob wriggled, and then a tentacle extended in front of He Sui.

The black substance slowly parted, and a crystal-clear chip appeared on it.

He Sui abruptly grabbed that tentacle, his handsome face darkening. “Who gave you this gift?”

Xu Xiye tugged at his tentacle, but couldn’t pull it free. “Xiao Jingsi gave it.”

He Sui, looking very displeased, took off his own bracelet and tried to fit it over the tentacle. Of course, it didn’t fit right. He Sui held it in place. After a moment, a series of error warnings showed on it.

Those silver-blue eyes flashed with strands of electricity in irritation. He Sui stared at Xu Xiye. “Try changing back to human form.”