After Bystander A Bound to JJ Literature City – CH111

Chapter 111

“Big sister?”

“A woman.”

A figure instantly surfaced in Yu Zhi’s mind—a woman in a red dress.

Before the pollution instance appeared, a flamboyantly dressed woman had walked into the temporary settlement area.

Yu Zhi asked, “Was she wearing a long red dress and holding a long-handled umbrella?”

Hongtao sniffed, wiped her tears, and nodded.

Yu Zhi frowned. “Where is she now?”

“I—I don’t know,” Hongtao sobbed, her voice trembling. “Pretty Sister said she would take me to find my aunt. I didn’t see my aunt… then she told me to wait here. After that, suddenly a lot of people outside started screaming…”

Watching her cry with snot and tears running down her face, Yu Zhi recalled what had happened at the wall earlier. There had indeed been a young woman standing behind her then. The two of them even looked somewhat alike.

While they were talking, hurried footsteps sounded in front of the residential building.

Lu Liming and Doctor Qi ran over in a rush. Neither of them had teleportation abilities, and the first-floor windows were all fitted with security bars, so they couldn’t climb in—they had to circle around from the front.

“Brother Yu!”

Lu Liming rushed to Yu Zhi’s side in a single stride, clutching his gun as he stared at Hongtao, who was still wiping her tears.

Hongtao looked up at him and froze. Even her hand paused mid-wipe.

Lu Liming widened his eyes and clicked his tongue. “Holy crap, she’s really alive?!”

“This is the first time I’ve seen a living person in a pollution zone. Kid, have you been contaminated? Or are you hurt anywhere? Big Brother and this uncle are both ability users—we can heal you.”

When she continued staring at him blankly, as if stunned, Lu Liming couldn’t help touching his face. “What’s wrong? I don’t have three eyes growing on my face, do I?”

Hongtao lowered her head and said softly, “No… I’m not hurt either. I—I just think you look a lot like my dad…”

Yu Zhi said, “You can call him Dad.”

Hongtao: “……”

Lu Liming: “I don’t mind.”

Hongtao: “…………”

Yu Zhi pulled the conversation back on track. “What happened after that?”

Hongtao rubbed her swollen eyes and said timidly, “There were lots of people screaming outside, so I didn’t dare go out. Pretty Sister told me to wait here.”

“She said the brother  I saw at the entrance to the safe zone this morning would come here to find me. He would take me to see my aunt.”

Hearing this, Lu Liming tightened his grip on his gun and cursed, “It really was Meteorite Biotech that created this pollution zone!”

“Brother Yu, they’re targeting you again. Who knows where they’re hiding right now.”

Hongtao glanced at him cautiously, opened her mouth, then closed it again.

Yu Zhi pressed, “What else did she say?”

“She also said… said…” Hongtao thought for a moment before remembering. “She said thank you for your report, so she went to prepare a big gift for you. Then she disappeared.”

Thank you for the report?
A big gift?

Yu Zhi’s lips pressed into a thin line, his gaze growing darker and darker.

Whatever Meteorite Biotech called a “big gift” could hardly be anything good.

The livestream users also caught the key point, and the barrage became even more active:

[User “Scarecrow’s Straw” loudly praises you for reaping what you sow.]
[User “Strongest King” looks forward to the other party’s big gift and mocks you, saying evil people meet their match.]
[User “Cyber Bodhisattva” praises you for bringing this upon yourself and tips 20 universal coins.]
[User “Pure Love Warrior” applauds you for tasting the bitter fruit and tips 20 universal coins.]

Yu Zhi ignored the chat. He suspected this instance itself was the so-called “big gift.”

A pollution incident appearing right under his nose—not too early, not too late.
The little girl he had briefly met in the morning hadn’t turned into a puddle of blood like the others.
And the ability user who had been forced to become the pollution source…

Yu Zhi curled his fingers around his gun, his mind racing as he connected the clues.

Meteorite Biotech’s goal was to contaminate everyone. They were also extremely interested in his ability and wanted to recruit him…

Turning the entire temporary settlement into a pollution instance—this disgusting “gift”—had only one true purpose.

—To make him witness pollution with his own eyes.

Lu Liming walked up to Hongtao, cleared his throat, and said gently, “Kid, that woman said Brother Yu would take you to see your aunt…”

He paused, swallowing back the words What if your aunt has become the pollution source? Instead, he crouched down to meet her eyes and asked, “Where is your aunt?”

Hongtao took a small step back, putting some distance between them. “I don’t know. I’ve been hiding here the whole time. I haven’t seen anyone.”

“You don’t know?” Lu Liming blinked. “Then how is Brother Yu supposed to take you to her?”

Hongtao sniffed. “I really don’t know. Pretty Sister told me to wait here for Brother.”

She turned to Yu Zhi. “Brother, don’t you know where my aunt is?”

“Brother?”

Seeing he didn’t respond, she tugged at his clothes.

Yu Zhi came back to his senses and looked down at her swollen, red eyes.

She looked about eleven or twelve. Probably from crying so long, her eyes were nearly swollen shut. The knee-length trench coat she wore was covered in dust, as if she had rolled on the ground.

“Brother, do you know where my aunt is?” she asked again.

She looked at him expectantly. “You’ll take me to find her, right?”

Yu Zhi’s lips moved as he was about to answer—when he suddenly noticed a line of writing on the wall behind her.

He took out two more candies. Originally, he meant to put them in her palm, but when he saw she hadn’t even unwrapped the previous ones, he slipped them into her pocket instead.

“Mm.”

“After you finish these candies, I’ll take you to find your aunt.”

Then he stepped forward and stood by the wall.

The flashlight beam illuminated the mottled, aged surface. On it was a familiar line of large, twisted, blurry characters.

Yu Zhi didn’t need to look at the photo on his phone to know the words were exactly the same as those on the iron gate and the glass window—practically copy-pasted.

Hongtao followed his gaze and read softly, “Be… careful…”

“Be careful of what?”

Lu Liming and Doctor Qi also turned their attention to the wall.

Doctor Qi’s face turned pale. Instinctively, he said a single word: “Eyes.”

The moment he said it, he regretted it.

His right hand began to ache again. At the same time, the character for “eye” on the cement wall suddenly bulged outward—and from it emerged a fist-sized, wet eyeball.

“Ah—!”

Hongtao screamed and hurried to hide behind Yu Zhi.

Yu Zhi looked toward Doctor Qi at once—and immediately saw the eyeball on the back of his hand.

Before he could speak, Lu Liming had already rushed over with practiced ease.

Doctor Qi’s eyelids twitched violently. He grabbed the dagger from Lu Liming. “I’ll do it myself.”

He pierced the eyeball and, with trembling hands, dug it out of his flesh. Blood splattered onto the ground.

Lu Liming quickly used his ability to heal him.

“W-what is that thing?” Hongtao retreated in horror, moving farther away from Doctor Qi. “Why do you have eyes on your hand? Why are there eyes on the wall?”

Doctor Qi didn’t want to hear the word “eye” at all right now. He closed his eyes briefly, pain flashing between his brows. “Stop talking.”

“You’ll know after you finish the candy,” Yu Zhi said as he strode quickly toward the building exit. “We can’t stay here.”

Doctor Qi had grown another eyeball. The contaminants would definitely catch the scent soon.

Lu Liming followed closely behind, still mulling over the writing. “Brother Yu, could that line have been left by Meteorite Biotech?!”

The more he thought about it, the more convinced he became. Words spilled out rapidly:

“When we first entered, we didn’t feel anything—it was only after we saw that line of text!”

“And just now, when we saw it again, Master Qi relapsed!”

“And there are so many moles in the Bureau. They’d know our secret codes. They must be deliberately misleading us! Trying to get us contaminated!”

Yu Zhi pursed his lips. “If they wanted to contaminate us this way, they wouldn’t have written it so vaguely.”

Lu Liming thought about it and found that very reasonable. He muttered, “All the other ability users died in the leisure area… Could it be Yu Yi left the words here?”

Yu Zhi stepped out of the building. Lifting his eyes, he saw the same familiar line of text on the wall of the opposite building.

The handwriting was exactly identical.

This time, the words were even larger—like an advertisement plastered on the wall, impossible to miss.

Yu Zhi glanced at Doctor Qi’s pale face, then at Lu Liming, who was deep in thought. Finally, his gaze settled on Hongtao, who was clutching the candy tightly.

He stopped walking and lowered his lashes, concealing all emotion in his eyes.

He didn’t answer Lu Liming directly. Instead, standing in the middle of the road with his gun, back to the wall and facing Lu Liming, he said, “Xiaoming, touch the writing.”

Without hesitation, Lu Liming stepped behind him and touched the nearest character. “Huh?”

Doctor Qi hurriedly asked, “Is there something wrong with the words?”

Yu Zhi said casually, “You’ll know if you touch them.”

Doctor Qi walked over and ran his hand over the characters. “These aren’t carved.”

Yu Zhi hummed in agreement. Seeing Hongtao approaching as well, he lifted his chin slightly. “Kids don’t touch. Stand still.”

Hongtao pouted but obediently stayed where she was.

Doctor Qi glanced at her and continued, “The bricks are indented, but not cracked. It looks like the words were left by an ability.”

“The ability-user team doesn’t have anyone who can control cement or bricks…” After a moment’s thought, he hesitated. “Was it Director Yu?”

Yu Zhi pointed out the flaw. “If he left it and still had his reason, the message would be written clearly.”

“If he had lost his reason, then how could the words be exactly identical every time?”

“Right, right,” Lu Liming nodded vigorously, following the logic. “So it wasn’t Yu Yi, not the ability-user team, and not Meteorite Biotech either. Then could it be… contaminants?”

“No, contaminants don’t have abilities.”

The next second, something clicked in his mind. He whipped his head around, staring at Yu Zhi in disbelief. “Is it… the pollution source?”

Yu Zhi slowly said one word. “Yes.”

The pollution source was an ability user from the Bureau.

When he turned into the source, he had retained a sliver of reason.

That was why he let the three of them enter the instance.

That was why he left those words.

The writing on the walls and windows was what he wanted to tell them—a warning left behind with his last bit of rationality.

“In here, killing contaminants is reasonable. Being contaminated is not. That means he doesn’t want us contaminated.”

“But he’s already the pollution source. He can’t think completely rationally anymore. He can only leave these vague, twisted words to try to warn us.”

Lu Liming froze. “Warn us? Warn us about eyeballs?”

Yu Zhi chambered a round and stepped forward, positioning himself between Lu Liming and Doctor Qi behind him and Hongtao in front of him.

“Eye. What else can it mean?”

Lu Liming thought for a moment. “Seeing?”

“Exactly.” Yu Zhi curled his lips faintly, his tone flat. “He’s telling us to be careful. Something is watching us.”

Lu Liming suddenly understood. “Right—so the contaminants are watching us. They’ve been watching us the whole time.”

“B-but… who exactly is watching us?”

Yu Zhi lifted his eyelids and looked at Hongtao expressionlessly.

“Hongtao, tell me—who is watching us?”

[Item “Speak the Truth Upon Opening Your Mouth” has taken effect.]

Hongtao stared at him blankly. Her lips trembled. The next second, her childish face twisted, and against her will, she forced out three words:

“It’s us.”

“Meteor has always been watching you.”

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