Chapter 612

He hung up the call, the person in the white lab coat casually tossed his phone aside and sat down on the office chair.

"Professor Fang, are you leaving for Shoudu already?"

Just after a short break, his office door was knocked, and a middle‑aged man with a shiny crown and a Mediterranean haircut wiped the sweat from his forehead, walked in and asked.

He knew Professor Fang, a biologist originally from Shoudu who was especially famous, and who even had authoritative papers published on many well‑known academic websites.

A short time after the college entrance exams ended, the professor suddenly parachuted from Shoudu to their place, saying he might serve here for a while.

Their school immediately renovated the laboratory, replacing all the equipment with the newest and best, and after Fang Zhiyan arrived, he did not idle; during this vacation he led his students to solve one problem after another.

In fact, just this summer their prior investment in the laboratory had almost broken even, yet they still hoped Fang Zhiyan could teach courses at the school and give more guidance to their students.

But as the start of the new term approached, Fang Zhiyan announced he would resign and return to Shoudu.

"Yes, there is an important experiment over there that hopes I can return to take part in."

Fang Zhiyan nodded, but in reality it was not so.

Since the Dome and Mutation Department's unsavory affairs were exposed, they, as the Aberrant Species counterpart of Fang Zhiyan, also came under close official surveillance.

Not to mention, Fang Zhiyan had previously, half‑jokingly, made some "dangerous remarks."

If before they could still be joked with by colleagues and smooth things over, the exposure of the counterpart's crimes meant that they were scrutinized from start to finish.

The final result was that they were kicked out of the research team; any research on Mutation and Aberrant Species could no longer be continued after leaving the team, and their previous progress was divided among others.

According to the internal official analysis of Yang Yixie, he was placed in the nearest Academy because of family reasons; this school was the best, and his grades also guaranteed his admission.

But no one expected Yang Yixie's mother Zhiruo to suddenly become open‑minded, taking her child back to Shoudu to attend school.

And the crucial point may be that those above also noticed the overt and covert struggles below; Yang Yixie's file had already been classified as top secret, and only a handful of people were authorized to access it.

His older files were abundant, but no one had tracked his recent whereabouts.

It wasn't until Yang Yixie left City C for Shoudu and encountered an Aberrant Species that his movements were newly recorded by the Special Investigation Bureau.

Counting the time, Fang Zhiyan had been excluded from the Core of the experiment for almost two months; as long as those above still needed his experimental abilities, they could not keep sending him to the frontier forever.

And he only needed to quietly open a certain joint in the shadows......

After a few polite words, Fang Zhiyan dismissed the Mediterranean‑hair teacher; seeing that Fang Zhiyan was determined, the other party did not linger, after all, it was best to leave a good impression for possible future cooperation.

When he left, Fang Zhiyan bent over, opened the cabinet beside his desk, and pulled out the bottom drawer.

Inside was a small safe, nominally for storing some important documents.

But Fang Zhiyan's hand reached inside and felt the safe's inner compartment.

Because of his interference with the higher‑ups and his recent honesty, the surveillance targeting him had weakened considerably.

He retrieved several sealed reagent tubes from the safe's compartment.

Fang Zhiyan took the tubes out and, against the light, examined the condition of the stored liquid.

The liquid was blood‑red, but ordinary fresh blood darkens after long storage, whereas the liquid in the tubes remained eerily bright.

Against the light, faint tiny filamentous particles could be seen in the liquid.

The light passed through the tube, and one of Fang Zhiyan's eyes seemed to turn dark‑red, squinting at the potion inside.

After returning to Shoudu, Fang Zhiyan is likely to face rejection from other experimenters, and most important research projects probably will not involve him.

But that's fine; he doesn't need to share projects or progress, as he is taking his own project back.

The light stretched his shadow long, not only dyeing his eyes blood‑red, but also making the projected shadow look snarling and clawed.

——————————————

Yang Yichen had already left; before departing he made sure to repeatedly remind Yang Yixie not to cause trouble, saying that any problem could be dealt with by calling him directly.

Lately the situation in the game has become increasingly tense; the defense line jointly built by the Church and the Dome is about to collapse, and as Undead they have been forced to join the battle.

If he has an accident, this household could end up being run by Yang Yixie.

Yang Yixie merely gave a perfunctory nod, and after Yang Yichen left, he retrieved the sound‑proof devices that had been placed in the four corners of the living room.

Then he took out his homemade cleaning robot and set it to work.

After applying Rune technology creatively, the little robot not only handled the household chores but also served as security.

Only the tasks that are too beyond ordinary cannot be let mother Zhiruo witness, otherwise they'd be hard to explain.

"Xiao Chen went out?"

Mother was still awake; the sound‑proof devices that Yang Yixie had placed in the living‑room corners did not cover the foyer or the front door.

She knew the two brothers seemed to be hiding something from her, but she did not hear the content of Yang Yixie and Yang Yichen's conversation.

"Right, he said he has to go back to work overtime."

Yang Yixie nodded; what he didn't say out loud was that he also wasn't planning to stay cooped up at home.

After confirming his mother had fallen asleep, Yang Yixie would activate the home's Rune devices to safeguard the house, then take a round in the city, preferably capturing those fleeing Aberrant Species to eliminate the threat for the people.

"...... Will Xiao Xie go do something dangerous?"

Seeming to have an epiphany, mother Zhiruo suddenly looked up, staring directly into Yang Yixie's eyes.

"Of course not."

Yang Yixie blinked, trying to let his mother see his sincerity.

"That's good then."

Mother simply stepped forward and gently embraced her youngest child.

"Xiao Xie, go to bed early; I'm going back to rest first."

Mother left abruptly and returned hurriedly, leaving behind a bewildered Yang Yixie.

Mom......

She can't have already sensed something's wrong, right?

"...... Did I do something wrong?"

After returning to the room, Zhiruo sat at the bedside, her fingertips involuntarily resting on an old photograph on the nightstand—aged but still clear thanks to good preservation.

In the photo, it's a scene of a family gathered together, and even the person who has long been absent from this household appears.

Then call me selfish; I just haven't figured out what to do......