Chapter 323: Surrender

Hong Ling walked ahead, her steps light and carefree, as if strolling on a vast meadow, and at first glance she seemed no different from the other youthful students.

Jiangdu followed behind her, his brows tightly knit.

He could still feel the pervasive eyes watching around, but Hong Ling seemed completely unfazed, even taking a moment at a windowsill with a potted plant to reach out and flick a leaf still wet with droplets.

"... What exactly are you looking for?" Jiangdu asked in a lowered voice.

Hong Ling didn't turn around; she simply flicked off the droplet clinging to her fingertip.

"Looking for the source of the stench."

Jiangdu was taken aback, while Hong Ling kept walking ahead on her own, her nostrils flaring slightly.

"That way." She raised her hand and pointed toward a building.

Jiangdu followed the direction of Hong Ling's finger and saw that it led to the area housing the professors' private laboratories, with a conspicuous sign at the entrance: "No entry without authorization."

"That's the experimental building, right? We can't get in without a teacher escort."

Hong Ling tilted her head, as if his words meant nothing to her, and marched straight toward that side.

Jiangdu: "Hey!"

He didn't have time to grab her and could only quicken his pace to keep up.

Just as they rounded the corner, a figure emerged from a nearby turn; Shen Zexi was carrying a cardboard box containing freshly issued school uniforms, and when he looked up, his gaze met both Hong Ling and Jiangdu directly.

All three froze.

Shen Zexi's eyes lingered on Hong Ling's face for a second, then shifted to Jiangdu, his brows faintly furrowing.

"You're..." he hesitated briefly, "Jiangdu?"

Jiangdu nodded, his expression a little awkward.

He recognized Shen Zexi, the guy who had shown strong leadership during the entrance exams and was quite popular around the Academy.

Shen Zexi's gaze fell back on Hong Ling, this time lingering a bit longer.

It wasn't because Hong Ling was beautiful, but because of something else.

Shen Zexi couldn't articulate the inexplicable feeling; Hong Ling stood there in a tidy uniform, looking outwardly like any ordinary female student, yet her eyes...

... were like a beast sizing up its prey.

Shen Zexi's instinct was screaming alarms, but only a perfectly timed gentle smile appeared on his face.

"Are you looking for a particular teacher?" he said casually, as if it were a passing remark.

"This is the experimental building; without a teacher's permission, students can't just wander in."

Jiangdu quickly tugged Hong Ling's sleeve and lowered his voice.

"We'll leave soon; we're just looking around."

Just looking around, and we end up right at the experimental building's entrance?

Shen Zexi didn't expose their flimsy excuse; he simply nodded, then his gaze returned to Hong Ling.

Hong Ling didn't meet his eyes; she stepped past him and looked toward the experimental building.

"This side really stinks."

Shen Zexi's mouth twitched slightly, his tone still gentle.

"It must be the smell of experimental reagents; some labs need constant ventilation, and the reagents do smell unpleasant."

Hong Ling didn't respond, her brows furrowing even tighter.

"It's not reagents," she whispered, as if to herself, "it's something even more detestable."

She stared down the far corridor with a gaze full of dread.

Shen Zexi's smile remained unchanged, but he began to ponder what Hong Ling truly meant.

"Looks like it's already gone, though."

Hong Ling suddenly withdrew her gaze, turned, and walked back briskly.

"Huh?" Jiangdu stumbled as she led him, could only quicken his steps to keep up, and before leaving gave Shen Zexi a nod.

"We're leaving right now."

Shen Zexi stood where he was, watching their backs fade around the corner.

Jiangdu's desperate attempts to grab Hong Ling, while she kept walking ahead of him, somehow exuded a strange, eerie harmony.

When they were far enough, Shen Zexi shook his head, turned, and entered the experimental building.

The corridor was silent, only his footsteps echoing, and he followed his memory to Professor Luo De'an's laboratory and pushed the door open.

"Teacher Lin, I'm back—Ying Duo..."

His voice suddenly caught in his throat.

Only Lin Xun was in the lab.

The testing bed was empty, and cables from various instruments dangled from both sides as if ripped straight from someone's body.

Ying Duo, who should have been on it for examination, was nowhere to be seen.

Shen Zexi's eyes swept the entire lab quickly, finding not a single trace of green.

He immediately turned to Lin Xun.

Lin Xun stood at the console, hands in the pockets of his white coat, looking at him with an expression that defied description.

"Teacher Lin?" Shen Zexi asked instinctively, "Where's Ying Duo?"

Lin Xun opened his mouth, then closed it with difficulty.

His gaze toward Shen Zexi was filled with sympathy.

"......... He left."

Shen Zexi frowned, "Left? Where to?"

Lin Xun took a deep breath.

"He said," Lin Xin paused, as if struggling to phrase it, "he wants to go to the Supervision Bureau to turn himself in."

Shen Zexi: "......."

Shen Zexi: "What?"

Lin Xin's expression grew more complicated; he raised his hand and pointed to a small screen beside the console.

Shen Zexi hurried over and looked down.

It was a line crudely edited on the lab computer, and someone had changed it to a distinctly personal Ying Guang Lu:

"I'm going to the Supervision Bureau to turn myself in, check on Luo Jinyou's situation; we should be able to be locked up together, and if anyone comes to break out the prison, they can take both of us."

Below is PS:

"Teacher Lin doesn't have to take the blame; I ran on my own."

Shen Zexi stared at those two lines and was silent for three seconds.

Then he turned to Lin Xin, his voice unusually a bit airy.

"....... What?"

"Turn yourself in."

Lin Xin repeated it to him again, and after finally uttering those words, he himself could accept the fact.

"He just now sat up from the testing bed, ripped all the cables off, and then told me."

He paused, then recited Ying Duo's words verbatim:

"'I'm going to the Supervision Bureau to turn myself in; that way they might lock me together with Luo Jinyou, and when you come to break out the prison, just take us both away together.'"

Shen Zexi: "......."

"'After he finished speaking, he left straight away.' Lin Xin raised his hand and pointed at the laboratory's main door, as if asking Shen Zexi whether he hadn't run into Ying Duo when he came in."

Shen Zexi suddenly wanted to ask Ying Duo: "What logic does your brain circuit follow?"

So was the Chen Family matter really done by Ying Duo? Was it not that he wanted to check on Luo Jinyou's situation and just take the blame outright?

If Ying Duo really gets locked up in the Supervision Bureau, together with Luo Jinyou.......

Then indeed, during the prison break we'd only need to extract two, without splitting up.

Wait, so why jump straight to the prison‑break step?

Shen Zexi was silent for a moment, then slowly raised his hand and rubbed the bridge of his forehead.

"........ Teacher Lin," he said, "give me a moment."

Lin Xin nodded, fully understanding.

He himself had already been pausing for quite a while just now.