Chapter 12
Ye Xuan had never seen Xia Chenxi like this in the dormitory before.
The dormitory had power limits, and electrical appliances were checked regularly. Xia Chenxi would occasionally eat in the cafeteria, and if he came back late from the library, he would simply make instant noodles in the dorm to get by.
Ye Xuan had never known Xia Chenxi could actually cook. But then again, it would have been strange if he had known. Before the zombie outbreak, the number of things he had said to Xia Chenxi could be counted on one hand.
The aroma from the kitchen drifted out, and Ye Xuan’s stomach growled at a very inappropriate time.
Xia Chenxi looked at Ye Xuan. Embarrassed, Ye Xuan scratched his head.
“Stop standing there. Come in. After you eat, I’ll register your fingerprint.”
Ye Xuan followed Xia Chenxi into the room and closed the door.
“Sit on the sofa for a while.”
Ye Xuan sat down on the sofa and observed the place.
Two bedrooms, one living room, one kitchen, and one bathroom. The setup was quite good.
The room was simple and elegant, mostly in light colors, not depressing.
Once he had nothing to do, Ye Xuan felt his neck start hurting again. He leaned his head against the sofa and watched Xia Chenxi busy in the kitchen.
The way he cooked looked very practiced, not like a beginner at all.
Xia Chenxi brought out the dishes. A simple meal of three dishes and one soup.
“Come eat.” He hung up the apron and said to Ye Xuan.
Ye Xuan walked to the dining table, pulled out a chair, and sat down. There was green vegetable and tofu soup, braised beef brisket with potatoes, steamed small yellow croaker, and braised chicken drumsticks. The meal was not luxurious, but it definitely counted as abundant.
“Do you often cook by yourself?”
“During holidays, I worked part-time to earn tuition, so I cooked for myself. But I didn’t do it often. Sometimes I had to work several jobs in a day, so to save time, I’d just eat instant noodles or bread to get by.”
No wonder he always stocked up on instant noodles by the whole box in the dorm.
“How are your parents?” Since the base had rescued his parents, Xia Chenxi’s parents should have been rescued too.
Xia Chenxi’s chopsticks paused in midair for a moment before he calmly picked up a piece of beef brisket. “I don’t have parents. I grew up in an orphanage.”
Ye Xuan was chewing rice and nearly bit his own tongue. Xia Chenxi had only told him before that he was a poor student. Ye Xuan had thought his family was just relatively difficult, but he had not expected him to have grown up in an orphanage.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to bring that up.”
“There’s no need to apologize. Instead, I find it very strange. Why is it that whenever you people hear I came from an orphanage, you either pity me or look down on me? In your eyes, are people like me very strange?”
Xia Chenxi put down his chopsticks and looked at Ye Xuan. His gaze was clean and clear. He only wanted an answer, even if that answer had nothing to do with right or wrong.
“You people”—how wide did the range of that category cover?
Ye Xuan lowered his head guiltily. In fact, he did not think there was anything wrong with it. His first reaction had only been surprise. In his impression, people like that usually lived more miserable lives because, compared with ordinary people, they lacked a normal childhood. Other than that, there was no difference. They were human too, people who worked even harder to survive in society. If he had to summarize it with one answer, he could only call it social prejudice.
That was right. He was just an ordinary university student with no special skills, no noble sentiments.
“Forget it. Eat. How’s your neck?” Xia Chenxi changed the subject at the right time. “I sent you a message, but you didn’t reply.”
At that time, after the registrar had sent Xia Chenxi the application, Ye Xuan had not known how to reply to him, so he simply had not replied.
“It’s alright. That doctor told me to go change the dressing every two days.”
“Doctor? Xie Yan?” Xia Chenxi gave a light laugh. “He’s not a doctor. He’s the entire base’s special-grade researcher.”
Special-grade researcher? No wonder he could make an exception and let his parents enter the family quarters.
“He told me he was just a working ox and horse.”
“Even oxen and horses are divided into different ranks.”
Ye Xuan had nothing to say. Did he now count as one of the base’s oxen and horses? Sixth rank? Ninth rank? Seven-ninths rank? Or eight-ninths rank?
In any case, he could never return to the relatively relaxed and pleasant life of university again, even though before this, he had early morning classes three days a week.
“How’s your body?” Ye Xuan asked Xia Chenxi. He remembered that back at the convenience store, Xia Chenxi had still been in a berserk state.
“I’ve already been injected with a stabilizer. I won’t randomly bite people again.”
During the two days he had been unconscious, Xia Chenxi had probably already adapted to life here. Meanwhile, he still had to worry about whether he could stay in the base.
Xia Chenxi keenly noticed Ye Xuan’s low mood.
“Don’t you want to know why you were bitten twice?”
Right. He had been bitten twice. Did that not mean he had become an ability user even earlier than Xia Chenxi? The ridiculous thing was that at the time, he had still been guarding against Xia Chenxi. It should have been Xia Chenxi guarding against him instead.
“The day before the zombie outbreak at school, I saw Lin Dong bite your shoulder while you were playing games, but you didn’t seem to care. The next day, on my way back to the dorm from the library, I saw Lin Dong convulse, then collapse. Not long after he fell, he suddenly stood up and bit Gu He beside him. After that, Gu He showed the same symptoms. Just like that, the phenomenon of people biting people spread. When I was hiding, Lin Dong accidentally grabbed my ankle and bit me.”
“If I hadn’t returned to the dorm, you wouldn’t have been bitten by me and ended up in such a sorry state.”
“There’s no point saying that now. It’s already happened anyway.” Ye Xuan did not want to blame anyone. If it was fortune, it was not disaster. If it was disaster, it could not be avoided. “Besides, Xie Yan said I’m very likely to become an ability user again.”
“So who infected Lin Dong?” Ye Xuan raised his own question.
The food on the table had already been completely cleared. Xia Chenxi put down his bowl and chopsticks, took a tissue, and wiped his mouth.
“I observed many zombies. Almost all of them showed symptoms within five minutes. Even the longer cases didn’t exceed ten minutes.” Xia Chenxi’s gaze sharpened. “So I suspect Lin Dong was a test subject. The virus inside his body had been suppressed by some kind of inhibitor. Maybe something went wrong, or maybe the timing just happened to mature. Lin Dong became the fuse that triggered this explosion.”
Combining this with what Xie Yan had told him, a terrifying thought formed in Ye Xuan’s mind.
Someone had been researching this virus in the school.
Right under their noses.
Ye Xuan felt as if someone had grabbed him by the throat, making it hard to breathe.
“Relax. Even if you know, there’s nothing you can do about it. Since they dared to do something like this, they aren’t afraid of being discovered.” Xia Chenxi got up and began clearing the bowls and chopsticks. “Right now, you should think about how to awaken your ability.”
“I’ll just let nature take its course. If I can’t awaken it, I’ll go mine ore. Anyway, my parents can live in the family quarters and won’t have to suffer with me.” That was what Ye Xuan thought.
Xia Chenxi placed the bowls into the dishwasher. Hearing Ye Xuan’s words, he could not help letting out a scoff.
“This isn’t a place where you can simply let nature take its course.”
“What do you mean?”
Xia Chenxi turned back to look at Ye Xuan. The cold, glaring white incandescent light fell across his face, making him look a little less human.
“This is a place where interests come first.”
