Chapter 287: Returning to the Lab
“That’s my space. What could go wrong?”
Zhuang Mingxu thought for a while, then hesitantly asked, “Weiyi, are you still afraid I’ll go through with the surgery?”
Lu Weiyi suddenly looked up at him.
He didn’t answer, but his reaction said everything.
“I’m sorry, I was too impulsive back then,” Zhuang Mingxu apologized sincerely, moving closer and planting a kiss on his worried lover. “I’m sorry.”
Seeing that he wasn’t lying, Lu Weiyi finally breathed a sigh of relief, but still added, “I think it was a bad idea.”
“I agree. I think it was a bad idea too.”
Hearing that, Lu Weiyi gave him a puzzled look, as if asking why he had been so insistent before.
“I have a feeling…” Zhuang Mingxu said, recalling many moments from that time. He realized that ever since encountering Zhuang Mobai, it felt like his thoughts had been subtly guided by someone.
“When you interacted with Zhuang Mobai, did you notice if he had any powers?” Zhuang Mingxu asked.
“No…” Lu Weiyi paused mid-sentence—he had never checked.
Because of his memories from his past life, he’d assumed the Zhuang family was just the same as before and never even considered the possibility that they were hiding something.
“You mean Zhuang Mobai?”
“Yes. I felt like someone was guiding my thoughts,” Zhuang Mingxu said. That made Lu Weiyi recall his own behavior.
With the knowledge from his past life, he shouldn’t have been surprised by anything the Zhuang family did. But he had gotten furious when the old man brought up assassination so righteously.
He had already known about it—so thinking back, that kind of emotional outburst shouldn’t have happened. He had assumed he was just too angry, especially after the crushing mental exhaustion that followed.
But thinking now, he and the old man had always kept things tacit for Zhuang Mingxu’s sake. The old man was a master at maintaining face—there’s no way he would’ve picked a fight like that without cause.
“Mental-type ability,” Lu Weiyi murmured.
Mental-type abilities could influence thoughts and emotions. He himself had specialized in researching this, yet he had still been affected by someone else.
Because he had taken for granted that Zhuang Mobai didn’t have powers in his past life, he’d let down his guard completely.
“You have psychic abilities too—how could he affect you?” Zhuang Mingxu asked, confused.
“My emotions were already unstable at the time. He just nudged them a little. And I wasn’t on guard,” Lu Weiyi explained. “Even within the same power type, there are different specializations. For example, both Li Zhuang and Xiong Jie have earth-type abilities, but Li Zhuang focuses more on offense, while Xiong Jie focuses on defense.”
Likewise, although both had psychic abilities, Lu Weiyi had always followed the path Zhuang Mingxu had helped him shape in their past life. As for Zhuang Mobai… who knew where he’d taken it.
It made Lu Weiyi realize he had relied too much on his past-life memories. This mistake was a wake-up call, a reminder to stay vigilant.
“Stop overthinking. Let’s go take a look together. First, let’s confirm whether he actually has powers,” Zhuang Mingxu suggested. He didn’t want Lu Weiyi burdened with more stress.
Although Lu Weiyi liked to call himself a useless dreamless waste, being manipulated like this still left a bad taste in his mouth. He said unhappily, “I’m going to dig out his crystal core.”
Zhuang Mingxu pinched his cheeks, puffed up in anger like a little pufferfish, and chuckled. “Sure, or you could just kill him?”
“You’re close to him. I won’t kill him,” Lu Weiyi promised earnestly.
Zhuang Mingxu’s heart ached. His lover didn’t say much, but his actions showed how much he considered him.
Before he could be too touched, Lu Weiyi added, “I want to bring them back to the base to use for research.”
“What are you planning to research?” Zhuang Mingxu asked.
“I don’t know yet, but talented people always have a use.”
That would be the most efficient way to maximize value.
Zhuang Mingxu nodded.
Now that they were on the same page, there was nothing to hesitate about. Lu Weiyi took Zhuang Mingxu’s hand, and in a blink, they appeared in the lab.
The lab was exactly as Zhuang Mingxu had left it. The only difference was that there wasn’t a soul around—just the patients in the room. Some were still asleep, others were groaning quietly.
Zhuang Mingxu stood in front of Lu Weiyi, warily glancing at the surveillance cameras, on guard against any potential appearance of ability-user security guards.
“This way. I locked them up here,” Lu Weiyi said with no concern, pulling Zhuang Mingxu along down the corridor to a room at the very end.
As they approached, he really could sense a faint, indistinct energy probing at them from not too far away.
This only further confirmed Lu Weiyi’s suspicion—Zhuang Mobai indeed had abilities. Whether he had them in the past life and hid them, playing dumb while secretly powerful, or only awakened them in this life, was unknown.
As the door opened, the room was packed with men and women in white lab coats. Zhuang Mobai sat at the front, calm and composed despite being locked in there.
Seeing them enter, he even greeted them cheerfully. “You’re here.”
The others looked over warily.
One of the doctors, who had seen Zhuang Mingxu before, recognized him and asked, “Aren’t you related to Dr. Zhuang? Why have you locked us in here?”
“Dr. Li, please calm down,” Zhuang Mobai patted the doctor’s shoulder. “This is a family matter. Let me handle it first.”
Saying that, he stood up and walked toward the two of them. Lu Weiyi looked at him coldly, and in an instant, his gaze sharpened, and the atmosphere shifted dramatically.
It was as if an invisible force swept in from all directions. Everyone was pressed to the floor, some even beginning to bleed from the nose, groaning and crying in pain.
Zhuang Mobai, being the closest, collapsed to his knees, his face pale, as if crushed under a mountain. He gradually lowered toward the ground, trembling and weak.
This was the first time Zhuang Mingxu had seen Lu Weiyi unleash his powers on such a scale. Although he was protected and didn’t feel it directly, everyone else’s reactions sent a clear message—Lu Weiyi was very powerful.
He did feel a little envious of such power, but more than that, he felt proud. This was his lover, someone who had always stood in front of him, something he had never dared imagine before. Now that it was reality, Zhuang Mingxu couldn’t help but smile.
Lu Weiyi focused most of the pressure on Zhuang Mobai. The man collapsed on the ground, pressed down as if by a giant hand. His once-elegant gold-rimmed glasses had fallen to the side, one of the arms bent grotesquely.
His lab coat was wrinkled from his struggles, and his usual composed appearance was completely gone.
“Where did you get the nerve to try to harm me again?” Lu Weiyi asked coldly, enunciating every word.
He watched Zhuang Mobai writhe in pain. Finally, the man couldn’t help but cry out, “Mingxu… I… I never… did anything to hurt… you…”
His voice trembled.
It seemed like they really hadn’t wronged Zhuang Mingxu—just treated his life as disposable.
“Granduncle, tell me truthfully—was that surgery truly risk-free?” Now that Zhuang Mingxu was no longer under Zhuang Mobai’s mental influence, he felt cold and terrified. Performing an experimental procedure barely researched for a year on his own grandson… that was no different from treating him like a test subject.
Zhuang Mobai tried to speak, but under the immense pressure, he coughed up blood. His bones felt like they were going to shatter into dust, and all he could do was writhe in agony.
Lu Weiyi didn’t give him a chance to use any abilities. He focused his mental energy on Zhuang Mobai’s forehead and forcibly extracted his crystal core.
Zhuang Mobai let out a blood-curdling scream, clutching his head and rolling on the floor. The room filled with his anguished howls. Even though Lu Weiyi had withdrawn his power, no one dared move.
Zhuang Mingxu was already familiar with screams like that—he’d heard them countless times during their days in the lab. Every room would erupt with them periodically.
Lu Weiyi said nothing. He dragged over the chair Zhuang Mobai had been sitting in and collapsed into it weakly, resting with his eyes closed. In his hand was a crystal core, still warm and streaked with blood, spinning between his fingers.
Zhuang Mingxu, knowing he had just used a significant amount of mental power, looked at him with concern, silently asking if he was okay.
Lu Weiyi shook his head, saying nothing more.
After a long while, Zhuang Mobai’s movements slowed. He wiped sweat from his face, gasping, and tried to get up, but failed and dropped back onto the floor.
Surrounded by people, not one stepped forward to help. Eventually, he slumped on the ground and muttered, “So, you’re a mental-type too. I thought you were wood-type. Or are you dual-type?”
After the ordeal, his usual gentle demeanor was gone. Without his glasses, his eyes now held a twisted glint.
But when he looked up and saw the crystal core in Lu Weiyi’s hand, his expression froze. He immediately reached toward it, but Lu Weiyi pinned him down again with mental power.
“Ugh—ah—” Another pained moan, and Zhuang Mobai collapsed, unmoving.
“What did you give them? What are the side effects? When will the effects wear off?” Lu Weiyi asked calmly.
Zhuang Mobai gave a bitter laugh. “I knew that even if you rescued them, you’d still be helpless and come crawling back to me.”
Lu Weiyi moved to press him again, but Zhuang Mingxu raised a hand to stop him.
He looked around and spotted a familiar female doctor among the crowd.
Before stepping forward, he glanced at Lu Weiyi.
Following his gaze and confirming that the woman had no abilities, Lu Weiyi nodded—but instead of letting Zhuang Mingxu approach, he used a vine to bind the woman and tossed her in front of him.
“What do you want?” the woman asked warily.
Zhuang Mingxu repeated Lu Weiyi’s earlier questions.
