TCOR CH44

Chapter 44: You’re hooked!

On the eighth day, we climbed a mountain.

Early in the morning, after we ate some dry food and packed our camping equipment, Shen Wunian and I drove for fifteen minutes to Heji Mountain Forest Park, not far from the abandoned factory.

Jiang City is mostly flat plains, with not many mountains. The few mountains that do exist are all less than 100 meters above sea level. Among them, Heji Mountain is the highest, most extensive, and has the most beautiful scenery. There are not only wild animals such as deer, antelope, and martens, but also hundreds of species of birds and more than 200 ancient and famous trees that are over 100 years old.

At an altitude of more than 90 meters, it takes almost an hour to climb from the entrance of the park to the top of the mountain.

At the top of the mountain, there is a huge viewing platform from which you can see the distant and hazy Jiang City. I took a few pictures and then went down the other side of the mountain with Shen Wunian.

Halfway up Heji Mountain is Yuelao Temple. I don’t know if it’s effective or not, but because there’s a centuries-old ginkgo tree in the temple, it’s quite popular with tourists.

Early summer is the growing season for ginkgo trees. The overlapping layers of green leaves are a bit tender and green. Looking up from the bottom, they are lush and vibrant, like a giant green pine ball. Engraved on the nameplate are the words, “This tree is more than 700 years old. When it was born, Jiang City was a tidal flat.

The breeze carries the smell of incense.

“Would you like to go inside and pay your respects?” I asked Shen Wunian.

He looked in the direction of the Matchmaker Hall, a slight look of disdain flickering in his eyes, and said bluntly, “I don’t believe in ghosts and gods, and I have no requests.

Thinking that he had previously burned incense in front of the Buddha, I wasn’t at all surprised by his answer and shrugged, “Okay, then I’ll go by myself.

The kind and good-hearted businessman was like a god sitting on a high altar. As soon as the last worshipper got up from the prayer mat, I took his place.

I had come all this way, so I had to pay my respects, whether it worked or not.

After scanning the QR code to donate 20 yuan in incense money, I picked up the yarrow cup in front of the prayer mat, silently recited my name in my heart, and then told the deity what I was praying for. I did this three times and then threw the yarrow cup into the air.

A yin and a yang are the sacred cups that represent the granting of the believer’s request by the spirits. I looked at the result of my toss – both sides were yin, meaning the spirits did not grant my request.

Frowning, I donated another 20 and, undaunted, took the yarrow cup back and repeated the previous steps and threw it again.

Still no!

Glancing at the smiling Yue Lao statue, I rounded up 100 yuan and donated another 60 yuan to throw for the third time. This time, the yarrow cups did not have two yin sides, but it was even more strange: one was yin and the other was upright, which was a rare upright cup.

This situation is a warning to the fortune teller, and generally represents the gods’ view that the current problem is not suitable for fortune telling.

It’s not suitable for fortune-telling, but you charged me 100 yuan? You’re just after my money, right?

I suddenly stood up in anger and walked out, shaking the bricks with each step.

Outside, Shen Wunian was still watching the ancestral ginkgo tree, and when he heard the noise, he turned his head and looked at me.

“Luckily you didn’t go in, you’re an impostor,” I said, quickly walking past him with my backpack and continuing down the path.

“Tomorrow is my roommate’s birthday, so I have to take the day off.”

On the bus ride home, I talked to Shen Wunian about tomorrow’s plans.

Xie Yunze’s 20th birthday banquet was a week away, and everyone in the photography club would be there except me.

Shen Wunian, who rarely asked questions these days, asked, “You just moved into the dormitory, and you’ve already made friends with your roommate?”

“I don’t live on campus anymore,” I said, remembering that I hadn’t told him about renting a room. A junior is looking for a roommate, so I’m living with him now. The rent is cheap and the room is quite big.

On that day, Shen Wunian’s answer was still no.

On the ninth day, I didn’t have a date, so I went to Xie Yunze’s birthday banquet.

Xie Yunze has many friends, and on his birthday a large table for twenty people was set up at a seafood restaurant near the school. During the meal, everyone was joking and laughing so much that the ceiling of the private room was almost raised.

It was also during this meal that I learned that Xie Yunze’s mother is actually a researcher at the Red Thread Control Bureau, which is not a lowly position.

“Rich people are scarier than you think…” Somehow, when the topic of Redvein Syndrome came up, Xie Yunze’s face was full of mystery, as if he knew some untold secret.

“Don’t keep us in suspense, tell us…”

“Yes, tell us!”

I held my phone under the table and stared at the chat interface with Shen Wunian on the screen. After hesitating for a long time, I sent a message: [What are you doing? Have you eaten yet?]

“My mother said that rich people don’t have to worry about getting Redvein Syndrome because the United States has already developed an artificial antidote.” Xie Yunze finally revealed some of the information he knew amidst everyone’s jeers.

“If it has been developed, why hasn’t it been announced to the public? Is it still in the experimental stage?” someone asked.

“Because the artificial antidote is not a medicine, it is a person, just like Cure,” Xie Yunze whispered. “This is what my mother learned when she went to the United States for further studies. They started experimenting on children more than ten years ago. I’m not sure of the exact principle of this artificial antidote, but it seems that by disguising humans as female insects to confuse the males, the matching rate with all Redvein can be over 80%.

“Using children for experiments? Oh my God, that’s so cruel,” Peng Dai said in disgust.

“There’s something even more cruel. These children have been raised as ‘artificial antidotes’ since they were young, and the idea of saving Redvein has been instilled in them. They can be said to be submissive and nonresistant to the Redvein community. And my mother said that they are all exceptionally beautiful. On the surface, they are the antidote, but in reality, they may be nothing more than the perfect pets for the powerful and wealthy.”

“Really…”

“Whoever set up this experiment is so evil, aren’t they afraid of the retribution that will come back to their descendants?”

Xie Yunze seemed to be waiting for this comment, so he slapped the table and said, “Heh, you’ll never guess. The director of the American Redline Research Bureau is a psychotic Chinese man surnamed Pei. How ruthless he is, raising his own child to become a synthetic antidote!”

“Over there, the synthetic antidote is called ‘Mimic’. That child didn’t know he was a human until he was a teenager, and he thought he was a different kind of creature from other humans called ‘Mimic’. Isn’t that pathetic?”

I suddenly looked up: “Mimic?”

“Yes, it means ‘someone who can imitate.'” Xie Yunze did not notice my unusual expression. After finishing his explanation, he joined the others in criticizing the filthy rich.

The words that Pei Huanchen had unconsciously muttered during his last attack flashed through my mind: “This disease is plaguing Redvein, causing them to suffer and lose their dignity. That is why Mimic’s help is needed…”

“Anything for science, anything for humanity. Someone has to make the sacrifice, and it has to be me…”

“But it hurts, the experiment hurts… Daddy, I’m in so much pain…”

Mimic… Director Pei… artificial antidote…

I slowly connected these things with Pei Huanchen, and finally combined them into a terrifying hypothesis: Pei Huanchen is Mimic.

That’s why his social skills were so poor, and why he kept talking about how humans are…

What about Liang Zai? Is he Redvein? Is he the kind of rich idiot Xie Yunze was talking about, someone who treats Mimic like a toy? Does Shen Wunian know any of this?

That night, I was so distracted by the whole Pei Huanchen thing that I didn’t even care that Shen Wunian hadn’t contacted me.

Day 10, the zoo.

I was distracted all day.

Several times I wanted to ask Shen Wunian about Pei Huanchen, but I didn’t know how to bring it up. The most important thing was that even if Pei Huanchen really was Mimic, there didn’t seem to be anything I could do about it.

And when I calmed down and thought about it, Liang Zai couldn’t have been a bad person, at least not for Pei Huanchen…

“If you don’t want to continue shopping, I’d be happy to end today’s trip early.”

I froze for a moment, looked up, and realized that I had unknowingly drifted two or three meters away from Shen Wunian.

He was holding a map, and when he saw that I had finally come to my senses, he even smiled at me.

I shook myself and sped up to catch up with him: “I was window shopping. This is my first time in Jiang City Zoo, and I still want to see the giant pandas.”

In the past few days, although he has acted like he’s full of patience, accompanying me everywhere and trying everything, I know he’s only doing it because he promised me and doesn’t want to go back on his word. He doesn’t like these childish and boring dates.

Several times, when I turned my head to look at something else, he looked like a prisoner who had finally been given a chance to get out, slightly revealing the impatient true face under the mask.

He thought I didn’t know, but I knew everything.

“Brother, have you seen my white T-shirt with Iron Man printed on it?”

On my way to the Panda Pavilion, I suddenly received a call from Xie Yunze.

“Go to my room and look for it, maybe you didn’t notice and put it away by mistake.

Xie Yunze and I share a drying balcony, and we both have the same hangers, so it’s normal that I didn’t notice and took the wrong clothes.

“Okay, I’ll look again. This shirt was bought for me by Xiaodai, and she told me to wear it on my date today. If I can’t find it, I’m finished.”

“If you can’t find it, just say I wore it.”

“You can’t hide forever!”

He made me laugh: “Go look for it. If you can’t find it, just say I wore it and then buy another one online.”

“Wow, you’re so smart!” Xie Yunze’s voice immediately brightened. “By the way, didn’t you say you wanted to work part-time? Are you free the night after tomorrow? I have a job for you as a waiter at a private dinner. Two hundred yuan for one night.

“Yes, yes, yes!” I didn’t think twice before accepting.

After going out for so many days, I kind of understand why Xie Yunze rented out the small bedroom – being in a relationship really costs money.

Even though my current balance is still sufficient, I can’t wait until the day I’m really broke to go out and make money. Since Xie Yunze also wanted to earn some pocket money by doing odd jobs, I asked him to keep an eye out for jobs.

After I hung up the phone, I suddenly realized that I was standing on a quiet road with no one in sight.

“Shen Wunian?” I walked a little further, calling Shen Wunian’s name, but got no response.

He didn’t answer the phone, and I didn’t hear from him. I was prepared for him to leave without me, but after a long search, I saw him at the end of the path, far away on the bridge by the Panda Pavilion.

“Why didn’t you wait for me?” I ran over to him, a little annoyed.

“I saw you were busy, so I came here first. I’m sorry, I thought you saw me and went on.” His excuse was perfect, and his innocent expression and words made him even more blameless. But strangely, I felt that he was dissatisfied and angry.

Because of this inexplicable feeling, I followed Shen Wunian closely for the rest of the day, never straying away from him.

You’ve changed your mind…

After taking a bath that night, I lay in bed and typed the first word into the chat box, and the rest of the content came up by itself.

When I saw that line of words, I thought about it for a while and deleted it all.

Forget it, he’s going to say those two words anyway.

On the eleventh day, bungee jumping.

Before I left the house, Xie Yunze walked in front of me to the kitchen to get some water, coughing occasionally.

I saw a slight, sickly redness on his cheeks and asked worriedly, “Xie, are you okay?”

Xie Yunze looked at me blankly with a cup of water in his hands and said, “I think I’m fine, but my body hurts and my head hurts.

When I heard this, I went over and took his temperature. It was a little warm, so he definitely had a fever.

“Lie down on the bed and I’ll find you some medicine to take.” I put down my backpack, pushed him over, and went into my bedroom to look for the medicine bag in the drawer.

Xie Yunze poked his head in: “I used to get like this a lot when I was little. You go ahead, I’ll be fine.”

“I’ll take care of it myself, you go lie down first.”

I found a box of Tylenol and gave it to Xie Yunze. Then I gently closed the door and sent a message to Peng Dai, informing her of Xie Yunze’s situation.

[Little Ai, can you look after him for me? I’m still in class, and the teacher is known as the Grim Reaper of our department, so I can’t leave!]

[How long will it take you to get here?]

[Forty minutes.]

Forty minutes…then I’ll definitely be late.

[My roommate suddenly got sick and might be a little late.] I sent a message to Shen Wunian explaining the situation.

[After a while he got back to me.

I waited anxiously, and time passed more slowly than ever. Meanwhile, I brought Xie Yunze some water, and his fever had gotten worse.

“Little Ai, thank you…”

As soon as Peng Dai arrived, I rushed out of the house.

Without wasting time on the subway, I took a taxi. I was in a hurry and about to miss the deadline. I wanted to call Shen Wunian to beg for mercy, but I couldn’t get through to his phone. Helpless, I had to send a message instead, typing so fast that sparks flew.

I never thought in my life that I would long for such an extreme sport.

[I’ll be there soon!]

[Really, only ten more minutes!]

[Wait for me!]

The bungee jumping venue is located in a large sports stadium in Jiang City, and the actual arrival time is ten minutes later than the ten minutes I expected.

Shen Wunian doesn’t answer my calls, let alone my messages. I can only hope that he hasn’t left like yesterday and is still waiting for me at the destination.

But when I anxiously took the elevator to the high bungee jumping point, it was still empty.

The staff said that Shen Wunian had been here, but had left a long time ago.