Chapter 642: A Bit of Modern People's Shock

If he were an ordinary student, just hearing this news would probably make him very excited.

Bai Mu Yun had already been a well-known designer in the wasteland, so this wasn't surprising to him, but he still agreed.

"Sure, if I have time, I'll go check it out."

Bai Mu Yun exchanged a few more pleasantries with the other party, then hung up.

These past few days, while surfing the web, he happened to meet a group of netizens with special insights on design, who gave him several tips for a designer's career.

However......

Bai Mu Yun looked at the video that had just popped up on his phone; it seemed a nearby mall was holding an event, apparently called...... a comic expo?

Seeing a few characters with animal ears, he almost mistook them for Aberrant Species.

Seeing someone in the video literally treating a trash can as home, deliberately hiding inside to scare people, Bai Mu Yun suddenly felt he wasn't quite as integrated into this world as he thought.

This world is still utterly bewildering.

No wonder it's a world capable of raising Ying Duo.

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"Is it really okay for me to go out like this?" Luo Jinyou said, somewhat unaccustomed, covering his eyes; even when acting with Shen Zexi and the others, he was used to hiding all his nonhuman traits.

But now, Meng Kexin lets him skip those disguises.

"It's fine; you can let your tail out if you want," Meng Kexin said.

"The mall we're going to happens to be holding a comic expo; there are plenty of people weirder and more flamboyant than you, so you can relax—just keep your Mutation under control."

Luo Jinyou had been staying at the official base this whole time; although the authorities promised not to subject him to excessive human experiments, they still carried out every kind of test, blood draws and sampling alike.

After finally getting a day off, the capital was especially bustling due to various events piled up today, and those researchers also let them go out for a stroll.

They merely asked Meng Kexin to keep an eye on them, saying the official representative they had previously negotiated with would also come, treating it as a short holiday in the capital.

Meng Kexin had heard some things about Ye Lin; as a liaison between the Church and the authorities, Ye Lin held considerable intelligence on both worlds, and because an important person was suffering from Mutation, she was also grateful that Luo Jinyou was willing to cooperate with the experiment.

All in all, she is a trustworthy person.

"No, the tail still needs to be kept tucked in," Qi Hengyu couldn't help but say.

To the simple folk of the wasteland, Meng Kexin's words sounded utterly bizarre; if eyes might go unnoticed, a tail sticking out would be far too conspicuous.

"Just do what you're used to; today you can relax a bit."

Meng Kexin merely nodded, not pressing the issue; after all, as she said, today was meant to be a holiday for a few people to rest.

Even though she considered her own work ability quite strong, seeing Ye Lin's work pattern still surprised her; it was hard to imagine how a girl who had originally been disabled could work nonstop for these two months—or rather, two years—to reach her current position.

Anyway, once they arrived at the mall, they would probably realize how astonishingly accepting modern people are of new things.

The crowd at the mall entrance was denser than they had expected; a balloon arch of colorful balloons spanned the doorway, and several people in flamboyant outfits stood beneath it taking photos of each other—one person's skirt dragged on the ground, trailing a short distance, requiring constant care not to block others' paths.

Even though they had done some mental preparation based on Meng Kexin's words, when the group reached the mall they discovered their preparation was still insufficient.

While with the authorities, Shen Zexi had noticed that this world somewhat resembled theirs: most people had normal black hair, with colored hair being a minority, reportedly mainly related to region.

Originally this group should have been quite conspicuous, but after entering today's crowd, even without perfectly blending in, they were utterly unnoticeable.

Shen Zexi's gaze swept through the crowd and landed on an object being slowly pushed by someone.

A green trash bin labeled "kitchen waste" had someone crouched inside it, with another person helping to push the bin so it could move smoothly through the crowded throng.

The person inside the bin also stretched out a hand, waving vigorously at passersby, as cheerfully as if taking part in some formal parade.

Shen Zexi's feet stopped; he turned his head, leaned toward Meng Kexin, and asked in a low voice:

"...... Is this your custom here?"

His tone was quite serious; Meng Kexin followed the direction of his finger, and her expression froze in that instant.

She watched the person inside the bin being pushed around the mall, still making scissor gestures at passersby, and fell silent for two seconds.

Then she spoke: "...... No, this is definitely not any kind of custom."

"Then what is he doing?" Shen Zexi asked.

"He's doing abstract." Meng Kexin said firmly.

Shen Zexi glanced at her; obviously he didn't grasp that word, but he roughly caught the meaning.

He hesitated a moment, then ultimately didn't move, because the person inside the bin looked genuinely happy.

Ye Lin stood nearby; she had originally been looking at the event schedule on her phone, but upon hearing this exchange she quickly lifted her head to add a sentence:

"It's...... this, this is a form of entertainment favored by young people, not a common practice here!"

Her speech was much faster than usual, for fear that Shen Zexi might develop some outrageous misunderstanding about modern people.

"Vastly few people would put themselves inside a trash can; this is truly a minority!"

Actually, he isn't that old either—Shen Zexi was slightly stunned by her reaction, and Qi Hengyu beside him spoke first to comfort him.

"It's fine, it's fine—just a friend we knew before who really liked to crawl into trash cans; he's a bit traumatized and has trouble moving, so he could only ask whether this is your local custom."

Ye Lin glanced at Qi Hengyu, then at Shen Zexi, finding it hard to imagine that anyone could actually be fond of trash cans.

People continued to come and go inside the mall; Luo Jinyou stood among them, wrapped in this lively, bright atmosphere, and he noticed some rather distinctive outfits.

Things like animal ears and tails, etc., appeared on those people, and those nearby would eagerly rush over to take photos with them, even being loath to put down these "Mutation products"?

No one noticed that a small segment of his tail had peeked out from under his coat's hem, only to retract quickly.

A few of them looked east and west, finding everything novel, just like country folk entering the city.