Chapter 76
He Came.
The next morning.
Supervision Office.
In the innermost part of the large supervisor’s office, near the corner by the wall, there was a door with a keypad lock. Through this door and across a private corridor were Shen Zhuo’s personal living quarters.
The room was dim, the bed was messy, and the quilt only covered a corner of Shen Zhuo’s waist. His bare shoulder bore bite marks, and the outside of his fair ankle was covered with deep red kiss marks.
“…Get up,” Shen Zhuo, eyes closed, yawned softly while forcibly pushing away the arm wrapped around his body: “It’s time to go to work, get up…”
Half-awake and half-asleep, Bai Sheng grumbled in dissatisfaction, hugging Shen Zhuo even tighter. Still thinking about the thing he had worked so hard on but never succeeded before falling asleep last night, he uttered three words in a sleepy state: “Call me husband.”
Shen Zhuo asked lazily, “Call you what?”
Bai Sheng: “Husband.”
“Good.” Shen Zhuo responded without hesitation, then with a burst of strength, pushed Bai Sheng away and got out of bed to shower and wash up.
“…”
On the big bed behind him, Bai Sheng suddenly woke up in a second, blinked his eyes, and realized what was going on. Then he took a deep breath, scratched his chin, and thought for a moment, then suddenly found it acceptable.
“Husband!” Bai Sheng sat up and called loudly toward the bathroom: “I want to have tea eggs and meat buns for breakfast today!”
From amidst the sound of running water came Shen Zhuo’s calm reply: “Sure! Put it on my tab as a reward for your hard work last night!”
Last night, the two had scrambled out of the house in a panic. In the midst of their frightened escape, Shen Zhuo, with his unwavering will and clear mind, decisively chose to sleep at the office rather than book a hotel room.
At that time, Bai Sheng was already flushed and dazed, going along with whatever Shen Zhuo said without much thought. It wasn’t until they sped to the supervision office that Bai Sheng had a sudden realization of Shen Zhuo’s intention—he could turn into a wolf in a hotel, but absolutely not in the supervision office.
The supervision office was a place of great importance. If he dared to unleash his inner tyrant here, their adult quirks would be known throughout the International Supervision Office and the entire United Nations by the next morning, and Shen Zhuo would give him a beating that would make him question his existence.
Deprived of his right to transform, Bai Sheng felt deeply wronged and wanted to hear Shen Zhuo call him husband as compensation. However, Shen Zhuo gritted his teeth and refused to give in all night. The next morning, Bai Sheng came to terms with it. It was just a title—after all, what was the difference between them as a couple? He could call it too.
“Husband, what do you want to eat?” Bai Sheng asked cheerfully after washing up, ready to head to the cafeteria for breakfast. “How about poached eggs and oatmeal?”
Shen Zhuo was already dressed in a suit and tie, looking sharp and handsome, sitting at his desk, ready to start work. He raised an OK hand gesture in response.
***
The welfare benefits at the supervision office were quite generous. Although Bai Sheng did not have a civil servant status, he proudly enjoyed the special treatment as the husband of a civil servant. Everyone in the Shenhai City Supervision Office unanimously agreed that this husband could enjoy perks such as self-service meals in the cafeteria, unlimited soy milk refills, and pre-ordering meals a day in advance.
After filling his stomach, Bai Sheng, humming a tune, carried Shen Zhuo’s steaming breakfast out. He suddenly spotted Shui Ronghua, who had just returned from a business trip, sitting by the window, drinking soy milk, and chatting with Witch Italdo. The latter tenderly reached out to wipe away the soy milk foam from Shui Ronghua’s lips, though her sharp, blood-red fingertips could only sweep through the void without a physical form.
“Hey, on a date?” Bai Sheng couldn’t resist his nosy nature and greeted them with a grin: “Tsk tsk, so affectionate early in the morning?”
Witch Italdo rolled her eyes playfully and turned to Shui Ronghua: “This guy spent the whole night rolling around with that Shen guy, and he has the nerve to comment on others, hahaha.”
“That’s not accurate, it wasn’t the whole night, just half the night.” Bai Sheng arrogantly raised a finger: “Though it could have been the whole night, I was considerate of your Chief Supervisor…”
He stopped mid-sentence.
Shui Ronghua and the Witch were both stunned.
“You can see me?!” The witch exclaimed in disbelief.
When the Witch wasn’t summoned by Shen Zhuo, Shui Ronghua took control of the body, and the Witch could only appear as a purely spiritual form beside her. No one else could see or hear her.
However, the HRG laboratory had a special radiation wave called “Extraterrestrial 001 Radiation” by Director Gao and the others. When the radiation was at its highest, it could cause irreversible damage to the witch’s spiritual form, even burning her alive. But if the radiation intensity was moderate, the witch’s spiritual form could produce signals through this 001 radiation, allowing her to communicate with humans.
Before Bai Sheng evolved into double-S rank, he couldn’t see the witch’s spiritual form. He hadn’t thought about this issue. When he first evolved, he still couldn’t see her, and soon after, Shui Ronghua went to the central research institute for further studies, so he didn’t have the chance to encounter these two ladies again.
It wasn’t until this morning in the cafeteria that he was shocked to realize he could see both Shui Ronghua and the Witch, which meant he could now see the Witch’s spiritual form with his naked eyes!
“Have I developed some kind of new ability?” Bai Sheng was amazed, leaning in to scrutinize Witch Italdo, only to be concerned: “Dear, your skin looks rougher after a few months. Did you run out of the face masks we bought last time?”
The Witch: “Order new ones, quickly!”
Bai Sheng took out his phone to order new face masks for her, and Shui Ronghua said: “It’s probably because of the second evolution. The meteorite energy within you is now the highest on Earth, which has greatly enhanced your perception… By the way, this makes you the third person who can directly see Italdo’s spiritual form.”
“?” Bai Sheng asked curiously: “The first one is you, who’s the second?”
“Oh no, the second is me.” Shui Ronghua smiled and shook her head, “The first is Shen Zhuo.”
Bai Sheng had never asked Shen Zhuo if he could see the witch’s spiritual form. It was generally assumed that he couldn’t. He was astonished: “Why, how can Shen Zhuo, a human, directly see a spiritual form?”
Although Shui Ronghua was human, she was a host with a special spiritual link to Witch Italdo. The fact that Shen Zhuo could also see it was inexplicable. The Witch, browsing skincare products on Bai Sheng’s phone, replied absentmindedly: “I don’t know. That guy could see me from the first glance, not only see but also suppress me. I also want to know why.”
Bai Sheng: “?”
“Five years ago, Italdo landed on Earth with a meteorite, coincidentally falling near a subway station close to the central research institute. She lost all her memories, was terrified, and went berserk, attempting to devour a total of 132 male passengers in the vehicle,” Shui Ronghua reminisced with her chin resting on her hand. “Shen Zhuo and I rushed to the scene with the 001 extraterrestrial radiation device. At that time, no one could see Italdo, except Shen Zhuo. And the strange thing was, there seemed to be a special mental link between them…”
The witch immediately raised her head sensitively: “Honey, that’s not true, I fell in love with you at first sight and barely tolerated listening to that Shen guy babble!”
Shui Ronghua laughed, her eyes full of affection: “Yes, I know, for sure.”
Bai Sheng: “…”
Bai Sheng rubbed his chin, realizing something: “Wait, so Shen Zhuo could directly talk to the witch from the first sight?”
Shui Ronghua finished the remaining half cup of soy milk, nodding: “Yes, after seeking my consent, he allowed Italdo to possess me, which led to my A-class evolution.”
***
“—What did you say?” The subway station had been urgently evacuated, and Director Shen from the research institute, who had rushed over in a white coat, pointed at the stunned Shui Ronghua beside him, staring at the witch, and repeated, “—You want her?”
Five years ago, at the central subway station. The platform was crowded with inspectors on high alert, while over a hundred men held hostage in the car trembled and cried.
Witch Italdo clung tightly to the vehicle door, the left half of her stunningly beautiful, the right half demonic, shrieking something in an incomprehensible language at Shen Zhuo.
No one present could see her, but her brainwaves were directly fed back to the technicians’ display screens through the 001 extraterrestrial radiation. Director Gao hurriedly read out the translation: “She said yes! She lost her body during her long wanderings and now only has a spiritual form. She needs someone to voluntarily let her possess them, or she will devour everyone in this vehicle!”
In fact, no translation was needed because Shen Zhuo could directly sense the witch’s consciousness—fear, anxiety, hostility—completely bypassing language, appearing directly in his mind.
He had never experienced such a way of communicating, as if two consciousnesses were directly touching each other, thoughts and feelings laid bare.
Shen Zhuo blocked Shui Ronghua behind him, staring intently at the witch no one else could see: “Why, do you want to kill her?”
Italdo immediately let out an angry scream, and the 001 extraterrestrial radiation wave vibrated with countless tsunami-like peaks. Director Gao exclaimed, “She…she says she hates men. Only Dr. Shui here is pleasing to her… Wait, she says she likes Dr. Shui!”
Shui Ronghua was stunned.
Shen Zhuo was also momentarily dazed.
“@#￥%*&！！”
The witch, surrounded by numerous ability users on the subway platform, was on the brink of madness, clinging to the vehicle door and unleashing a string of angry screams and curses. The 001 radiation wave fluctuated violently like a magnitude 10 earthquake, and Director Gao stammered through the translation: “She needs a body because she is very vulnerable in her spiritual form. Having a body would make her feel more comfortable. But forcibly taking a body is very difficult, and she doesn’t want to do that. She hopes someone will voluntarily let her possess them…”
Shen Zhuo’s mind felt like it was exploding in succession, and he pressed his temple, while a central district inspector rushed forward with a phone: “Director Shen! Fu-ge is on a mission out of town, and he urgently sent back orders not to risk yourself. Please quickly turn the 001 extraterrestrial radiation to its highest level to kill this highly dangerous unknown spirit!”
“No!” Director Gao shouted angrily, “Exceeding the safe radiation limit will also cause great damage to the human brain unless we evacuate first!”
Shen Zhuo coldly replied, “Tell Fu Chen that I am in charge here, and he should not interfere.” Then, pressing his temple, he turned to Witch Italdo and impatiently refused: “No, Shui Ronghua is my subordinate. Until I am sure you won’t harm others, I won’t allow you to possess anyone. You—”
“I am willing,” Shui Ronghua’s trembling voice suddenly spoke up.
Everyone turned back simultaneously, seeing Shui Ronghua pale but mustering the courage to say, “I agree to let her occupy half of my body.”
Director Gao hurriedly warned, “Don’t do anything rash, Dr. Shui!”
Shen Zhuo frowned and scolded, “What if it’s dangerous? Are you out of your mind?”
But Shui Ronghua swallowed, took a step forward, and reached out towards the empty car door, knowing that a fierce witch from an extraterrestrial civilization was standing there.
“She said she likes me, so I am willing… to trust her.”
Shui Ronghua swallowed hard, looking into the void, trying to make her voice gentle and sincere: “I like you too. Please don’t hurt me, Italdo?”
It seemed like a long time had passed, yet it was only a brief moment.
Everyone expected the witch to erupt in a fierce scream, but she didn’t.
Only Shen Zhuo could see with his own eyes, Witch Italdo staring intently at Shui Ronghua, like a scrawny, wary cat, finally letting go of the car door, stepping forward step by step, her pace quickening, her blood-red pupils trembling more and more, like a soul that had wandered for many years finally finding a real anchor, eagerly leaping from mid-air towards Shui Ronghua—
At the moment of passing by, Shen Zhuo turned his head to her: “Why can only I hear your voice?”
The silent swish echoed for a long time, as the witch tightly embraced the gentle female doctor, the two bodies merging into one.
Deep blue light filled their bodies, exploding in a circular burst in all directions. In that brilliant light, Shui Ronghua underwent an A-class evolution.
As the halo gradually faded, the female doctor’s breathing finally calmed, and she turned to look at Shen Zhuo.
Her pupils glowed with the deep blue of a meteorite, and she spoke in the witch’s raspy, harsh voice, still unfamiliar with the Earth language:
“…I don’t know, I have forgotten everything.”
“But there’s a scent on you that feels very familiar, very… repulsive.”
***
“Could it be because Shen Zhuo’s mental strength is too strong?” In the supervision office cafeteria, Bai Sheng sat at the edge of the dining table, arms crossed, recalling how Shen Zhuo once entered the daydream and easily shattered the first layer of the dream. He speculated, “Only someone with mental strength strong enough can directly connect with Italdo’s brainwaves.”
Shui Ronghua shook her head.
“No, it shouldn’t be related to mental strength. We suspect it still has to do with the amount of meteorite energy a person holds.”
After Bai Sheng’s second evolution, the meteorite energy in his body greatly increased, allowing him to see the witch’s spiritual form directly. But Shen Zhuo, being human, had no meteorite energy. Why could he establish a mental link with Witch Italdo at their first meeting?
Could it be because he was immersed in the HRG lab, exposed to too many meteorites every day?
Bai Sheng frowned, pondering for a moment, then asked the witch thoughtfully: “So, what exactly do you dislike about Shen Zhuo?”
The witch was browsing Taobao on Bai Sheng’s phone, adding 180 bottles of plum blossom face masks to the shopping cart. But after seeing La Prairie and being attracted by the packaging, she cleared the cart and added 180 bottles of blue caviar instead.
“He’s got a fair face, a black heart, and a sharp tongue. The first time we met, he told me thirty things I couldn’t do in one breath: no eating people, no possessing people, no setting fire and blowing up all the men in the subway station.” The witch rolled her eyes openly, “Isn’t that high-and-mighty attitude annoying enough?”
Bai Sheng: “…”
It was a very valid point; from the witch’s perspective, he indeed seemed extremely annoying.
“Alright, alright, let go of the hatred,” Shui Ronghua, accustomed to these situations, tried to mediate. “Shen Zhuo has been very patient with you. If he had ordered the 001 extraterrestrial radiation wave to be set to maximum at that time, it could have directly killed the spirit body.”
The witch clicked her tongue in dissatisfaction, then expertly opened Bai Sheng’s Alipay, held the phone screen in front of him to scan, and ding! Payment successful.
“Anyway, I just hate him. I get annoyed whenever I see him.” The witch gestured to Bai Sheng, “Stop being polite, hurry up and tie up that Shen guy; bring him home; and make him submit. I’ll help you with the drugging and all that.”
Bai Sheng sincerely responded, “Thank you, thank you, but I’ll hold off for now. No, no, don’t use my Taobao account to search for those spring drugs, the algorithm will think I’m a pervert. Quickly clear the search history…”
Bai Sheng hurriedly cleared the scary Taobao search records, exchanged a few more words with Shui Ronghua and the witch, then said goodbye and left the cafeteria with Shen Zhuo’s breakfast.
Witch Italdo had almost no memories left, with only some residual images of the distant extraterrestrial civilization: endless war, smoke, and exile formed her chaotic and distorted impressions.
Her spirit body had been severely damaged during the long exile, making it almost impossible to recover, or perhaps Earth’s technology had not yet advanced to a stage where it could heal her.
—What on earth is it about Shen Zhuo that makes her feel both familiar and repulsed?
Bai Sheng pushed open the door to Shen Zhuo’s office, a sudden, inexplicable, and bizarre guess surfacing in his mind.
Could it be related to Shen Zhuo’s involvement in the first generation of the HRG project when he was a child?
Surprisingly, Shen Zhuo was not in a meeting or on the phone but sitting behind his desk, frowning at some old documents, with an open confidential file box beside him.
“Hey, what are you looking at? Eat it while it’s hot.”
Bai Sheng casually placed the breakfast on the desk, showing no sign of the thoughts running through his mind, and asked offhandedly, “Are those the old materials Yue Yang sent yesterday?”
Shen Zhuo hummed, not even looking up, as he ate a soft, tender egg from Bai Sheng’s hand.
Bai Sheng originally wanted to talk to him about the recent encounter with Witch Italdo, but Shen Zhuo was clearly not in the mood to listen. Bai Sheng glanced at what Shen Zhuo was holding and was immediately drawn to it: a yellowed notebook with complex wave diagrams, annotated with dense numbers and symbols, with many ink blots already smudged.
“Hey, wait a minute.” Bai Sheng pressed down on Shen Zhuo’s hand that was about to turn the page, studying it seriously, “I haven’t finished looking yet.”
Shen Zhuo brushed off his meddling hand: “This is a record book from the first generation of HRG 30 years ago. What are you looking at it for?”
“Oh—why are you still looking at materials from 30 years ago?” Bai Sheng raised his eyebrows high, with a convincingly innocent expression: “Wasn’t the first generation of HRG a ‘safe,’ ‘harmless,’ ‘purely for extending human lifespan’ project, completely unrelated to the second generation of HRG?”
Shen Zhuo didn’t even bother to humor him, replying indifferently, “You weren’t this naïve when you secretly asked Chu Yan with my mother’s last paper and repeatedly promised to buy her skirts and bags, Mr. Bai.”
Bai Sheng couldn’t help but laugh, giving up the pretense. He lazily perched on the edge of the desk, casually stuffing a meat bun into Shen Zhuo’s mouth, almost choking him as Shen Zhuo turned his head to push his hand away.
“How can our little girl be so biased? She asked Dad for pocket money to donate to the orphanage, then ran to tattle to Mom.” Bai Sheng cheerfully ate the remaining half of the bun from Shen Zhuo, saying, “Dad’s angry, and has decided to reduce her pocket money from fifty thousand to thirty thousand this month. There’ll be a family meeting tonight to condemn this unfilial behavior!”
“She didn’t betray you; she just couldn’t understand that paper, and after much thought, she could only come to me for help.” Shen Zhuo calmly turned a page, “Who told you not to remind her to keep it secret?”
He closed the notebook to prevent Bai Sheng’s greasy fingers from staining it, but Bai Sheng didn’t try to snatch it. He just smiled and looked at him for a while, then suddenly sweetly said:
“Husband.”
Shen Zhuo: “…”
“We’re family now; just tell me.” Bai Sheng nudged Shen Zhuo’s swivel chair with his foot, his eyes filled with a deep smile: “What happened that caused the entire first generation of HRG to collapse?”
“…”
“It hurts my feelings that you keep hiding things from me. Doesn’t it?”
If this were in the past, Shen Zhuo wouldn’t have paid any attention to him. He would have waved him off to go play and might have even called Chen Miao to accompany a bored S-class like him.
But now Shen Zhuo sat in his swivel chair, looking up at Bai Sheng’s seemingly affectionate face and his sharp, unblinking eyes, knowing that this tyrant in front of him couldn’t be chased away.
They were already grasshoppers on the same rope, and not to mention, Bai Sheng was a very strong, persistent, and energetic grasshopper. His persistence was much more terrifying than that of an ordinary grasshopper.
“…Actually, I don’t know either.”
After a long time, Shen Zhuo finally sighed and casually threw the notebook back into the confidential file box.
“I was too young when the incident happened. My brain was injured, and I stayed in the hospital for several years. When I grew up and started looking into the first generation of HRG, I found that many important documents and data were missing. They were likely taken by my half-brother, causing a significant loss of the first generation of HRG’s achievements.”
“I’ve been trying to remember my childhood, but none of the treatments worked. The doctors said it was because I had suffered lethal radiation. It was a miracle I survived at all.”
Shen Zhuo stood up from his swivel chair, walked to the corner of his office’s explosion-proof steel wall, and opened the built-in safe with a password and fingerprint scan.
He didn’t avoid Bai Sheng while entering the password—Shen Zhuo had the virtue of being straightforward. Apart from the key secrets he had to keep hidden, he wouldn’t waste emotions on unnecessary tussles over other matters, embodying the decisiveness of a seasoned leader.
“A-class serum, mind-reading.”
He took a vial of gene interferon from the freezer, held it between his two fingers, and indicated it to Bai Sheng: “When the ability is activated, it can broadly probe the subject’s memories, including those the subject has forgotten—Yue Yang brought it over yesterday.”
Only then did Bai Sheng understand why Shen Zhuo had uncharacteristically used the funds from the Shenhai City Supervision Office yesterday—well, his own husband’s money—to treat Yue Yang to a Michelin three-star meal.
“So formal, why trouble Chief Yue with such a small matter?” Bai Sheng examined the serum, pinching his chin with his knuckles, his tone sarcastically affectionate: “I’d have volunteered to fetch the mind-reading ability user, suppress them with pheromones, extract 1000 cc of their blood, and then compensate them with a civil service position.”
Shen Zhuo: “…”
Shen Zhuo calmly put the serum back into the safe: “What’s so special about a civil service position? Maybe the person wants to become the spouse of a civil servant.”
Bai Sheng took a deep breath, about to press his advantage, when Shen Zhuo’s phone on the desk rang. It was Yue Yang.
It was Yue Yang’s private number.
Shen Zhuo had always kept his requirements for Yue Yang simple: urgent matters by text, major issues by email, and no phone calls unless necessary. Even if calling, use the office number. However, the blow Chief Yue suffered yesterday must have been so severe that even the cold-hearted Shen Zhuo skipped the usual ignoring—ignore again—third time ignore—until finally picking up steps, and frowned as he picked up the phone, pressing the speaker button in front of Bai Sheng:
“Hello?”
There was a brief pause on the other end, probably because Yue Yang didn’t expect to get through immediately.
“…I just received news, suggesting you be prepared immediately.” Yue Yang’s urgent voice came through the speaker, accompanied by the hurried footsteps of many people: “The hospital reported that Su Jiqiao has undergone a second evolution.”
Shen Zhuo suddenly paused.
He looked up at Bai Sheng, and both saw the surprise in each other’s eyes.
“Su Jiqiao evolved to S-class?”
With his subordinates surrounding him, Yue Yang quickly walked into the elevator. As the door slowly closed, the numbers ascending were reflected in Yue Yang’s eyes.
“Yes, without any warning, and we don’t know the cause of the evolution. This morning, the nurse who came to massage him suddenly found that the mark on the back of his hand had changed to an S. We only know the evolution happened last night, but there hasn’t been any meteorite close to the entire hospital. I’m very sure.”
—This made no sense, because even a meteorite couldn’t cause a second evolution. Could it be that Su Jiqiao had swallowed another S-class like Bai Sheng?
That would be too ridiculous!
The elevator stopped, and the metal doors opened. Yue Yang and his team quickly stepped out.
“Su Jiqiao’s witness status is very sensitive. Although he hasn’t woken up yet, once he does, the signal will be immediately sent back to the International Supervision General Administration. Second evolution is a very obvious sign, and I suspect he is about to wake up…”
At the door of the ward, Yue Yang suddenly halted his steps, still holding the phone to his ear, but too shocked to speak.
Following his gaze, a group of doctors and nurses were gathered in the ward, each face filled with disbelief.
In full view of everyone, the patient, who had been asleep for three years, was sitting on the bed. His face was slightly pale, his features delicate, and he still looked somewhat like a teenager. He raised his eyes to look at Yue Yang standing frozen at the door, and his brows curled into a smile.
“Yue-ge,” he said softly, “long time no see.”
“…” Yue Yang, facing the phone, finally managed to squeeze out a few words with difficulty:
“Su Jiqiao… has woken up.”
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